440 


University  Library 
University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


s 


Printed  by  tlie  KEPTTBLICAN  STATE  CBNTBAL  COMMITTEE  of  California. 

Campaign  Document  No.  15. 


SPEECH 


OF 


HON.  EDW.  D.  BAKER, 

TT.    S.    Senator-   from    Oregon, 

DELIVERED  AT 

A  REPUBLICAN  MASS  MEETING, 

Held  at  the  American  Theatre,  in  the  City  of  San  Francisco, 

ON 
Evening-,    October 


REPORTED  BY  SUMNER  AND  CUTTER. 


SAN    FRANCISCO: 

COMMERCIAL  BOOK  :j  STEAM  PRINTING  ESTABLISHMENT, 

-•••»  Sansorae  f 

1860. 


Bancroft  Library 


\ 


SPEECH  OF  HOK  E.  D.  BAKER. 


On  the  evening  before  named,  the  American 
Theatre  w:is  crowded  to  repletion  with  the  larg- 
est and  most  brilliant  audience  ever  assembled 
at  any  political  gathering  on  the  Pacific  coast 
Not  less  than  4000  persons  were  packed  within 
the  walls  of  the  Theatre,  and  not  less  than  twice 


that  number  were  disappointed  in  their  effort  to    AsA  T-  LAWTON, 
gain  admittance.     The  dress  circle  and  the  rear   JAMES  L.  RIDDLE, 
of  the  stage  were  occupied  by  ladies  and  gentle-    B-  c-  DONNELLAN, 
men  accompanying  them,    and  in  every   other  '  SILAS  SELLECK, 
r>o,*  «r  fi,^  i — „„  «ii   — .-I.,,.  „.,   ,    SAMUEL  THOMSON", 

F.  S.  BALCII, 
GEO.  W.  CLARK, 
MICHAEL  HEVKKIN, 
WILLIAM  SCHMOLZ, 
DR.  ISAAC  Row  ELL, 


Mr.  Sullivan  then  read  the  following  list  of 
Vice-Presidents  and  Secretaries  placed  in  nomi- 
nation by  Mr.  Hathaway,  and  indorsed  unani- 
mously by  the  meeting : 

VICE-PRESIDENTS : 


'"""V      **O        v»»*-'»"j         CUlVt       1IJ.       CVUIV         U  tllCl 

part  of  the  house  all  available  space  was  filled 
by  the  mighty  assemblage. 

At  8  o'clock,  B.  W.  Hathaway,  Chairman  of 
the  Republican  State  Central  Committee,  under 
whose  auspices  the  meeting  was  held,  came  for- 
ward to  the  footlights  and  said :  As  Chairman  of 
the  State  Central  Committee,  it  devolves  upon 
me  to  call  this  meeting  to  order. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  We  have  met  here 
to-night  to  listen  to  the  first  Republican  who  has 


GEORGE  ALEXANDER, 
ALEX.  G.  ABELL, 
J.  W.  CUDWORTH, 
HENRY  THOMPSON, 
THEODORE  A.  MUDGE, 
ALFRED  J.  ELLIS, 
WILLIAM  C.  PARKER, 
THEODORE  J.  WOOD, 

ClIAS.  A.  SUMNER, 

S.  STEVENS,  of  Gregon. 


SECRETARIES  : 

WILLIAM  S.  REESE,        W.  B.  FLEMING, 

As  soon  as  the  officers  of  the  meeting  were 


men  to  the  first  Republican  who  has       As  soon  as  the  officers  of  the  meeting  were 
>ver  been  elected  to  a  distinguished  position  on    duly  installed,   the  cry  of  ;' Baker,"    "Baker," 
Pacific  coast,  but  unless  the  signs  of  the  times    was  sounded  vociferously  from  all  parts  of  the 


iiiJ.\yOO    VIIV     OlgLin   \JL     lillU    I  HIM.  >i 

do  not  deceive  us,  he  will  not  be  the  last.  (Great 
applause.)  Our  guest  is  one  of  the  great  champi- 
ons of  Freedom,  the  orator  of  the  Pacific  coast.  I 
perceive  that  you  are  extremely  anxious  to  have 
the  meeting  proceed,  and  I  propose  the  HON.  E. 
L.  SULLIVAN  as  your  Chairman. 

Mr.  Sullivan's  nomination  was  indorsed  unani- 
mously by  the  audience ;  and  in  response  thereto 
Mr.  Sullivan  came  forward,  amid  tremendous  ap- 


plause, and  said 
LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN 


I  appreciate  highly 


—  v* *. *+»*Miums\  .      j.  a^jiji  cuiuit?   lllS-fllly 

the  honor  of  being  called  to  preside  over  so  mag- 
nificent an  assemblage  of  fair  women  and  brave 
men.  We  meet  to-night  to  exchange  congratu- 
lations over  the  glorious  political  news  from  the 
East,  and  also  to  welcome  our  distinguished 
fellow  citizen  from  Oregon.  (Cheers.)  When 
we  remember,  fellow  citizens,  how  short  a  time 
has  passed  since  the  Republican  party  was  bit- 
terly assailed  by  storms  of  opprobrium  and  con- 
tumely, and  now  behold  that  same  party  on  the 
full  and  swelling  tide  of  victory,  we  may  well 
believe  that  our  cause  is  just  and  that  Provi- 
dence is  on  our  side  (Great  applause),  and  I 
think  we  may  properly  take  up  the  war-cry  of 
le  old  crusaders :  "  God  wills  it;  God  with  us." 
(Tremendous  cheering.)  The  victory  which  we 
shall  achieve  in  November  next,  will  not  bring 
with  it  tears  or  blood,  or  one  human  cry  of  des- 
pair; but,  on  the  contrary,  that  day  of  Freedom 
will  be  hailed  by  all  good  and  true  hearts  of 
every  land,  and  by  the  oppressed  of  every  nation. 
(Great  cheers.) 

I  will  not  detain  you  longer,  ladies  and  gentle- 
men, as  you  have  a  great  treat  in  store  for  you 
to-night. 


building. 

Soon,  the  form  of  the  gallant  old  Gray  Eagle 
of  Republicanism  was  seen  coming  up  from  the 
rear  of  the  stage,  and  as  the  immense  assemblage 
caught  sight  of  his  silver  locks,  cheer  rose  upon 
cheer  in  indescribable  enthusiasm.  The  building 
seemed  to  rock  to  its  foundation,  so  tremendously 
did  the  long  peals  of  applause  fall  upon  the  ear 
of  the  spectator. 

The  President  had  to  indicate  a  desire  to  intro- 
duce the  distinguished  speaker,  before  there  was 
the  slightest  abatement  in  the  vehemence  of  the 
cheering  and  applauding  welcome  which  the  citi- 
zens of  San  Francisco  extended  to  the  veteran 
soldier  in  the  Republican  cause,  who  now  stood 
before  them  as  one  of  the  Senators  from  the  State 
of  Oregon. 

Suddenly  all  was  still ;  every  one  stood  breath- 
less while  the  President  said  : 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  It  is  hardly  necessary, 
but  it  is  in  proper  form  ;  you  will  allow  me  to 
introduce  to  you  the  Hon.  Edward  D.  Baker, 
United  States  Senator  from  the  State  of  Oregon. 

Again  the  tremendous  shout  of  welcome  rose 
nigh  and  reverberated  long. 

Mr.  BAKER  said : 

I  owe  more  thanks  than  my  life  can  repay — 
and  I  wish  that  all  Oregon  were  here  to-night. 
(Applause  and  laughter.)  We  are  a  quiet, 
earnest,  pastoral  people;  but  by  the  banks  of 
the  Willamette  there  are  many  hearts  which 
would  beat  as  high  as  yours  if  they  could  see 
what  I  see  at  this  moment.  (Applause.)  People 
of  San  Francisco  and  of  California,  I  owe  you 
very  much.  But  I  owe  Oregon  more.  (Great 
laughter  and  cheering.)  And  my  heart  is  very 


[4] 


full  and  very  glad  when  I  think  that  in  trying 
to  pay  her  all,  I  will  pay  you  some.    (Applause.) 

The  interests  of  the  Pacific  coast  are  one 
"Whether  by  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  or  at 
the  Golden  Gate ;  whether  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Willamette  or  on  the  ridges  of  the  Sierra  Nevada, 
the  interests  of  the  Pacific  coast  are  one. 

And  more  than  that:  Oregon  believes  that  the 
interests  of  the  whole  Union  are  one ;  and  she 
intends  to  stand  by  them.  (Great  applause.) 

Many  of  you  know  how  I  am  situated.  If 
you  will  only  think  how  you  would  feel  if  you 
were  standing  in  my  place;  how  glad,  how 
happy  and  how  grateful,  and  just  say  it  for  me, 
then  you  could  do  more  than  I  can  expect  to  do 
for  myself. 

I  am  going  to  make,  as  of  old,  a  Republican 
speech.  And  just  when  I  ought  to  make  the 
best  one  I  ever  did  make,  I  know  that  I  am 
going  to  make  the  worst.  (Laughter.) 

Four  years  ago,  almost  this  very  night,  in  front 
of  this  house — I  recollect  that  it  was  a  very 
stormy  evening — I  had  the  honor  and  pleasure 
to  lay  the  foundations  of  the  Republican  belief  a 
little  deeper,  as  I  trust,  and  a  little  broader  in 
San  Francisco.  (Applause.)  "We  were  then 
striving  to  elect,  although  striving  against  hope, 
an  eminent  citizen  (Fremont)  now  happily 
among  us,  and  who  I  believe  honors  us  with  his 
presence  here  to-night.  (Great  applause.)  We 
were  a  young  party,  untried — and  upon  this 
coast  weak — and,  it  may  be,  a  little  timorous. 
Then,  even,  if  we  had  not  been  cheated,  we 
would  have  won.  And  we  did  win,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  three  or  four  States, — and  one  of 
hose  exceptional  States  is  called  Pennsylvania 
(Applause);  one  is  called  Indiana.  (Applause.) 
You  have  heard  from  Pennsylvania  recently,  and 
you  have  also  heard  from  Indiana.  (Great  ap- 
plause.) 

I  recollect  saying  four  years  ago — and  I  sup- 
pose that  my  remark  was  an  application  of  the 
old  proverb,  that  "  Revolutions  never  go  back- 
ward;"— I  recollect  saying  then  that  whoever 
became  a  Republican  would  remain  one.  We 
have  lost  nothing  since  then.  We  have  lost  no- 
body, and  we  are  gaining  everybody.  (Applause.) 

What  I  said  then  more  earnestly  than  I  can 
say  now,  I  would  desire  to  repeat  to-night.  The 
trouble  is  then  we  had  a  great  battle  to  fight ; 
now  the  battle  is  fought  for  us, — in  fact,  won  for 
us. 

I  sat  down  an  hour  ago  and  determined :  Now 
I  am  going  to  make  a  grave  argument  about 
Slavery,  the  Territories,  the  Railroad,  the  Home- 
stead Bill,  and  the  Pacific  interests,  and  the 
Atlantic  interests,  and  all  American  interests. 
But  if  you  were  to  stand  where  I  do  you  would 
say,  what  for  ?  We  know  that  we  are  going  to 
triumph — we  will  triumph.  All  signs  in  earth, 
in  Heaven,  approve  it.  And  all  I  can  do  and 
all  I  ought  to  do,  if  for  the  moment  I  may 
assume  anything,  is  just  this :  Upon  the  eve  of 
a  battle,  although  every  skirmish  has  shown 
your  superiority,  your  leaders  pass  the  front  and 
utter  in  the  presence  of  the  exulting  troops  words 
of  high  hope  and  burning  courage.  If  for  a  mo- 
ro<?>nt  or  an  hour  I  might  assume  that  task,  I 


would  pass  along  the  Republican  front  and  as 
the  shouts  of  victory  already  echoing  and  re- 
echoing from  wing  to  wing,  are  heard  in  front, 
in  flank,  in  rear,  I  might,  I  may,  I  will  do  my 
little  to  assure  the  fearful  and  confirm  the  bold. 
(Cheering.) 

I  used  to  begin  talking  about  Republicanism 
by  answering  objections.  For  instance :  They 
were  wont  to  denominate  us  Black  Republicans. 
Well,  either  they  don't  say  that  now,  or  they  use 
the  adjective  so  faintlj  that  it  does  no  harm. 
(Laughter.)  They  used  to  call  us  Abolitionists. 
They  used  to  call  us  sectional  agitators.  They 
used  to  pretend  that  we  desired  the  dissolution 
of  the  Union.  But  events  are  answering  these 
allegations  so  fast — what  is  there  left  for  me  or 
for  you  to  say  ? 

We  are  sectional,  are  we  ?  Who  is  national  ? 
How  many  States  will  Breckinridge  get  ? 
(Laughter.)  He  won't  get  any  in  the  North, 
and  the  Bell  and  Everett  men  say  he  won't  get 
one  in  the  South.  (Renewed  laughter.)  ' 

We  are  sectional,  are  we  ?  Let  me  see  now 
if  I  can  begin  the  old  reply.  First — Freedom 
cannot  be  sectional — must  be  national.  This  is 
the  first  answer.  Freedom  cannot  be  national. 
Why,  would  not  anybody  be  ashamed  to  pretend 
that  in  the  land  of  liberty  with  a  flag  which  \ve 
are  proud  to  call  the  banner  of  freedom  that  any 
idea  that  belongs  to  freedom  itself,  to  liberty, 
can  be  otherwise  than  the  idea  of  the  nation  ? 

Now,  they  used  to  say  that  we  were  sectional 
because  we  were  not  represented  in  the  Electoral 
College  or  in  the  National  Convention  which  met 
in  Philadelphia  by  delegates  from  all  the  States 
in  the  LTriion.  I  saw  a  letter  last  week  from  a 
very  honest  and  a  very  good  man  by  the  name 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  (Tremendous  applause.) 
And  he  in  thus  communicating  to  a  friend  said 
that  it  was  very  queer  that  he  should  be  called 
sectional  by  certain  politicians  when  it  was  a 
fact  that  he  got  more  votes  in  the  Chicago  Con- 
vention from  the  South  than  Judge  Douglas  did 
in  the  Baltimore  Convention.  "  Yet  the  party 
to  which  I  belong  is  said  to  be  sectional,  while 
that  of  Judge  Douglas  claims  to  be  national!" 

Again,  to  be  sectional  as  a  party — if  it  means 
anything,  it  means  as  I  suppose  that  the  party 
in  question  intends  or  desires  to  do  something 
by  legislation  for  the  benefit  of  one  portion  of  the 
Union  injuriously — or  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
other.  I  cannot  give  a  fairer  definition  of  it. 
Now,  when  they  say  that  we  are  sectional,  we 
just  enter  a  denial.  We  say  that  we  are  not 
sectional;  and  we  call  on  you  to  prove  the 
accusation.  Are  we?  Why?  How?  When? 
Where  ?  Now  you  Breckinridge  gentlemen — and 
I  know  that  there  are  some  of  you  here  to-night — 
let  me  ask  you  if  you  have  ever  thought  of  it 
candidly.  You  call  me  a  "  sectional  man."  What 
did  you  ever  hear  me  say  or  ever  know  me  to  do 
that  was  sectional  ?  What  do  I  desire  that  is  sec- 
tional ?  And  why  should  I  be  sectional  ?  And 
I  speak  of  myself  as  a  type  of  my  friends.  Where 
do  we  come  from ;  who  are  we  ;  where  are  our 
interests — in  what?  Why  should  we,  how  can 
we,  be  sectional  ?  Now  these  are  questions  that 
are  politics — a  grave,  earnest,  serious  matter  of 


[5] 


business — ought  to  be  answered,  and  we  invite 
you  to  answer  them  before  the  next  election. 

Now,  what  do  our  opponents  say  ?  Let  us 
take  their  strongest  argument.  They  say  that  we 
are  sectional  because  we  do  no!  represent  in  our 
Conventions  the  Kleetoral  College  of  the  whole 
Union.  Whose  fault  is  that?  You  won't  let  us 
go  down  South  and  make  Republicans,  or  we 
would  soon  have  a  host  of  converts  in  that  lati- 
tude. (Applause.)  I  believe  that  my  friend 
Judge  Douglas,  (hisses)  intimates  that  Lincoln 
•  South  to  see  his  mother.  (Laughter.) 
Surely  this  is  no  cause  for  your  complaint  against 
us,  if  "you  won't  allow  us  the  liberty  of  speech  in 
order  to  express  our  opinions,  or  even  to  record 
our  votes  in  your  States.  That  is  not  being  sec- 
tional in  us,  is  it  ?  If  so,  the  fault  is  yours,  and 
not  ours. 

But  you  observe  that  if  we  were  sectional  four 
years  ago  we  are  getting  less  so  very  fast.  Have 
you  hoar  I  from  St.  Louis  lately  ?  Do  you  know 
Frank  Bliir?  (Applause.)  Do  you  know  what 
we  are  doimr  in  Western  Virginia?  More  than 
that,  do  you  know  how  many  people  there  are  in 
the  South,  whom  they  call  "  poor  white  folks," 
that  would  be  Republicans,  if  they  could  have 
half  a  chance  to  express  their  views  ?  (Applause.) 
And  therefore,  if  as  yet  we  do  not  get  a  great 
many  votes  South,  that  be  your  fault,  not  ours. 
"Why  reproach  us  on  that  ground  with  being  sec- 
tional ? 

Well,  again :  if  "  sectionalism  "  means  not  to 
get  many  votes  in  one  section  of  the  country, 
what  is  the  position  of  Breckinridge  ?  (Great 
laughter.)  How  many  votes  will  he  get  in  New 
York  ?  All  the  votes  that  he  gets  there,  he  will 
get  under  a  pretense*  of  not  running  at  all. — 
(Laughter.)  That  is  the  idea  of  the  fusion  in 
New  York.  If  they  get  him  and  his  pretensions 
out  of  the  way  they  may  have  some  possible 
chances ;  otherwise  none  whatever.  How  many 
votes  will  Breckinridge  get  in  Illinois?  Will  he 
get  half  as  many  votes  in  Illinois  as  Mr.  Lincoln 
will  get  in  Missouri  ? 

Well,  now,  the  Breckinridge  men  will  think, 
perhaps  justly,  that  it  is  very  bad  to  say, — you 
are  a  sectional  party,  because  there  are  some 
states  in  which  yon  will  not  get  many  votes. 

I  prefer  to  test  the  matter  by  the  other  rule. 
Is  there  anything  we  desire  to  do  unjustly  to  op- 
erate to  your  disadvantage  and  to  our  benefit? 
And  you  may  consider  that,  if  you  like,  as  bring- 
ing up  and  at  once,  this  whole  question  of  slave- 
ry in  the  Territories  and  elsewhere. 

First,  we  deny,  as  we  have  denied  from  the  be- 
ginning, and  as  we  shall  deny  to  the  end,  that 
we  have  any  desire,  however  remote,  to  interfere 
either  directly  or  indirectly  with  the  existence  o 
the- institution  called  siaverv,  where  slavery  does 
now  exist  in  the  States  by  law.     (Great  applause. 
We  Say,  ---condly,  that  it  is  no  portion  of  our  po- 
•d  to  object  to  the  admission  of  States 
with  a  slavery  clause  in  their  constitution-, 
there   firmly  and   honestly  by  the  will  of  their 
people.     (Renewed  applause.)     We  say,  (>< 
that  no  Republican  body,  either  popular  or  legis- 
lative, ha-  ever  proposed — I  won't  say  carriec 
out,  I  will  go,  further — has  ever  proposed  to  in 


terfere  with  the  existence  of  Slavery  established 
>y  law  in  any  of  the  Slave  States.  More  than 
,hat,  we  say  that  it  so  happens  that  at  the  very 
,ime  when  our  good  Southern  friends  prate  most 
about  the  dangers  of  Black  Republicanism  to 
them  and  their  interests,  it  so  happens  that  at 
hose  peculiar  moments,  at  that  crisis,  cotton  and 
lingers  are  always  higher  than  at  any  other  pe- 
"iod.  (Laughter  and  applause).  I  have  not  time 
to  comment  upon  this,  but  it  is  a  very  pregnant 
fact.  Again,  we  say,  that  as  a  party  and  as  in- 
lividuals,  we  have  a  great  deal  more  interest  in 
preserving  the  Union  than  you  have;  judging  by 
our  number,  our  property,  our  extended  connec- 
tion with  commerce  and  manfactures,  or  by  any 
other  mode  that  you  may  suggest.  We  never 
proposed  to  dissolve  the  Union;  you  never 
heard  one  of  us  make  such  a  proposition.  I  put 
it  now  to  the  intelligence  of  every  man  who  hears 
me :  did  you  ever  hear  a  member  of  the  Repub- 
lican party  proposing  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  ? 
Now,  a  great  many  of  us  were  old  Whigs — and 
we  have  been  beaten  severely,  not  only  once,  but 
almost  all  the  time.  (Laughter). 

Four  years  ago  we  deplored  the  election  of 
James  Buchanan  as  a  national  evil.  Have  you 
since  heard  of  the  tarring  and  feathering  of  Re- 
publicans ;  of  running  them  out  of  the  Slave 
States ;  that  they  deprived  us  of  the  rights  of  citi- 
zenship guaranteed  to  us  by  the  Constitution? 
They  have  got  the  President,  they  have  the  Sen- 
ate and  the  "House  of  Representatives,  they  have 
got  the  Supreme  Co  m*t ;  they  thus  have  the  Judi- 
cial, the  Legislative  and  the  Executive  branches 
of  the  Government,  against  us;  and  for  them. 
And  in  the  face  of  this,  did  you  ever  hear  us  as- 
sert as  possible,  or  predict  as  probable,  the  disso- 
lution of  this  Union?  Now,  these  are  things  for 
you  to  consider  before  you  vote  against  us. 

Now,  talking  on  that  point,  where  are  you  on 
that  subject?  First,  you  Breckinridge  men, 
where  are  you?  I  won't  say;  it  might  be  un- 
just, perhaps;  it  would  be  unkind,  certainly;  I 
won't  say  that  every  Breckinridge  man  is  a 
disunionist;  but  I  will  say  that  every  disunionist 
is  a  Breckinridge  man.  (Great  applause  and 
laughter.)  And  the  difference  is  about  like  the 
Irishman's  idea  of  pronunciation.  He  was  walk- 
ing and  talking  with  a  Mr.  Footney,  an  English- 
man, and  the  Irishman,  with  the  proverbial  po- 
liteness of  his  race  and  lineage  was  constantly 
agreeing  with  his  companion.  Whenever  the 
Kngiishman  said  anything,  he  agreed  with  him, 
"  Ah,  yes,"  said  the  Irishman,  "  I  agree  with 
you  precisely,  Mr.  Fat-ncy."  {;  But,"  said  the 
gentleman,  l>my  name  is  not  Fal-ney,  if  you 
please,  it  is  Foot-ney"  "  Ah,  yes,  Fut-ney,  Mr. 
:  that  is  what  I  said,"  exclaimed  the 
Irishman.  "  Mr.  Fwt-ney.  if  you  please,"  again 
responded  the  Britisher.  "  Mr.  Ful-uey,  I  said," 
retorted  Patrick,  "  Fool-ney,  Foot-ney,  Foot-ney, 
my  name  is  Footney!"  "And  by  the  man  that 
made  Moses,  what  the  divil  is  the  difference  be- 
tween Fat-ney  and  Fai-iiey'l"  (Great  laughter.) 

Now,  while  I  say,  as  I  have  before  said,  out  of 
politeness,  that  every  Breckinridge  man  may  not 
be  a  disunionist,  I  am  bound  to  add  that  every 
disuniouist,  from  Yancey  up  and  down,  is  a 


[6] 


Breckinridge  man.  And  it  is  one  evidence  of 
the  mutability  of  human  affairs, — that  here,  four 
years  ago,  you  were  charging  us  with  disunion 
sentiments  as  if  you  believed  it,  and  now  we 
take  up  all  that  you  have  said,  and  a  great  deal 
more,  and  hurl  it  back  at  you,  and  you  don't  dis- 
pute it. 

I  am  told  that  here  in  California  your  stump 
speeches  boldly  proclaim  the  doctrine  of  Senator 
Lane  from  Oregon,  that  if  the  South  did  not  stand 
up  for  her  rights,  she  did  not  deserve  to  have 
any. 

Well,  now,  as  proof  that  we  are  not  sectional, 
we  will  tell  you  what  we  mean  about  this  mat- 
ter of  "  Union."  We  mean  to  do  as  we  have 
done ;  to  submit  to  everything  wrong,  as  we 
have  done,  for  the  sake  of  the  Union.  (Applause.) 
The  State  of  Oregon  is  farthest  from  the  center. 
I  think  it  will  be  among  the  last  to  leave  the 
confederation.  You  are  numbered  among  the 
latest  of  the  States.  I  know  you  love  the  Union. 
I  am  sure  you  do.  You  never  did  mean  and 
you  don't  mean  now  to  dissolve  the  Union ;  you 
are  determined  that  it  shall  be  preserved.  (Great 
applause.)  It  is  very  easy,  I  know,  to  talk  of 
dissolving  the  Union,  as  long  as  you  have  all  the 
offices  and  all  the  honors.  Tho  test  will  come 
when  you  have  not  these ;  we  have  been  tried  in 
that  way  a  good  while.  (Laughter.)  Now,  when 
we  get  a  chance  to  take  offices,  you  attempt  to 
frighten  us  out  of  a  victory  by  proclaiming  that 
you  will  dissolve  the  Union  in  the  event  of  our 
succession  in  power.  While  in  a  minority  we 
entertained  no  such  ideas,  and  made  no  such 
threats.  When  we  are  fairly  in  power,  as  a  ma- 
jority, we  intend  to  rule,  and  we  do  not  propose 
to  have  you  destroy  the  government  of  the  nation 
for  the  sake  of  the  few  offices  and  the  few  honors 
connected  with  the  control  of  public  administra- 
tion. 

I  have  seen  the  time  when  I  would  have  stop- 
ped just  here  and  indulged  in  a  dissertation  on 
the  value  of  the  Union ;  but  these  Breckinridgers 
have  completely  tired  me  out  of  that  kind  of  talk, 
and  I  have  not  the  heart  to  enter  upon  it. 

Let  us  candidly  consider :  What  do  disuriion- 
ists  propose  to  dissolve  the  Union  for  ?  They 
say,  with  the  grammar  and  sense  of  Van  Buren's, 
"Our  sufferings  is  intolerable."  (Laughter.) 
And  they  propose  in  alleviation  to  dissolve  the 
Union.  Speaker  Orr  does  it :  Yancey  does  it ; 
thousands  do  it.  They  echo  it  and  re-echo  it 
here. 

They  say  first  that  they  will  do  it  if  Mr.  Lin- 
coln be  elected — some  of  them  say  that.  Now 
they  will  have  a  chance  to  "try  it  on  that 
ground."  (Laughter  and  applause.)  But,  while 
they  are  talking  only,  we  will  take  the  liberty  of 
asking  them :  What  for?  What  can  Mr.  Lincoln 
do,  alone ;  what  can  any  President  do  without  a 
Senate,  without  a  House  of  Representatives; 
without  a  Supreme  Court  ?  He  cannot  nominate 
an  officer  that  can  hold  his  place.  He  cannot 
touch  one  dollar  of  the  public  money.  Although 
nominally,  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Arm)' 
and  Navy,  he  cannot  order  a  single  soldier  to 
any  point  from  which  Congress  cannot  order  his 
return  on  the  next  week.  He  cannot  free  a  slave. 


STow  what,  in  itself  considered,  can  there  be  in 
the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  or  any  other  Repub- 
ican,  to  justify  anybody  in  proposing  a  disso- 
ution  of  the  Union?  But  now  suppose  Mr. 
Lincoln  gets  the  House  of  Representatives  with 
aim,  as  by  the  way  I  think  he  will?  (Applause.) 
What  then  ?  Wiiat  can  they  both  do  ?  There 
will  then  be  against  them  the  Senate,  who  can 
put  a  check  on  all  legislation,  and  the  Supreme 
ourt  who  have  a  faculty  for  giving  a  construc- 
tion to  the  Constitution  a  great  deal  higher  and 
stronger  than  the  Constitution  itself.  (Laughter.) 
But  suppose,  after  a  little  while, — and  I  do  not 
think  it  is  a  very  violent  assumption, — that  these 
Black  Republicans  get  the  House  and  the  Presi- 
dent,—and  the  Senate  too  I  What  then?  Why, 
it  seems  to  me  that  if  they  get  a  majority  of  the 
people,  and  the  President  and  the  Senate,  it  will 
be  a  pretty  hard  thing  to  dissolve,  won't  it. 
(Great  laughter  and  applause.)  Well  now  if 
otherwise.  You  yet  have  the  Supreme  Court. 
Those  Judges,  I  know,  are  very  old.  But  Jeffer- 
son said  that  "Judges  never  die  and  very  seldom 
resign;"  and,  by  the  way,  they  are  living  now, 
I  begin  to  believe  it.  (Laughter.)  But  if  Mr. 
Lincoln  should  be  elected,  still  the  Senate,as  it  is 
now  constituted,  would  act  as  a  check  on  his 
nomination  for  Judges;  and  it  will  be  a  long 
time,  according  to  the  belief  and  opinion  of  every- 
body in  the  opposition,  before  the  Republicans 
can  get  power  to  do  anything  which  the  general 
sense  of  the  country  will  not  approve. 

Something  there  is  in  party  platforms.  Some- 
thing there  is  in  what  parties  attempt  to  do.  Now 
what  do  we  propose, — or  what  have  we  attempt- 
ed,— to  justify  a  dissolution  of  the  Union?  Take 
our  platform.  A  great  many  gentlemen  in  the 
Southern  States  will  persist  in  asserting  that  we 
don't  intend  to  admit  any  more  Slave  States.  We 
simply  reply,  we  have  no  such  intention;  we 
have  no  such  platform;  we  make  no  such  declar- 
ations; we  give  no  such  votes.  (Applause.) 
Still  they  go  on  to  say,  you  are  going  to  interfere 
with  Slavery  in  the  States.  We  say,  first,  we 
never  have  attempted  such  interference,  and  you 
know  it.  We  say,  secondly,  to  you  in  the  terse 
expression  of  Mr.  Seward,  no  interference  with 
Slavery  in  the  States ;  no  interference  with  Free- 
dom in  the  Territories.  (Great  applause.)  Well, 
say  they,  you  are  opposed  to  the  extension  of 
Slavery  in  the  Territories.  We  reply,,  suppose 
we  are :  What  then  ?  How  would  you  begin  to 
argue  the  matter  ?  We  say,  if  you  are  sensible 
and  moderate,  we  will  give  you  our  reasons.  To 
begin :  Our  fathers  were  of  the  same  conviction 
as  that  entertained  by  ourselves ;  Washington 
and  Jefferson  were  with  us.  In  the  beginning 
everybody  was  with  us.  The  first,  the  second, 
the  third  important  acts  of  the  men  who  made 
the  Constitution,  \ipon  the  subject  of  Slavery, 
were  to  dedicate  all  the  free  Territory  to  Free- 
dom, unalterably  and  forever.  And  from  the  be- 
ginning until  now,  if  we  follow  that  example, 
who  can  blame  us?  Did  you  ever  hear  that 
answered?  I  have  heard  a  good  many  debates, 
and  I  have  heard  a  great  many  speeches,  and 
yet  whenever  that  proposition  has  been  fairly 
and  honorably  put  I  have  never  heard  a  fair  and 


m 


valid  answer  to  it.  We  say  in  effect,  that  if  wo 
do  desire  to  dedicate  all  the  Territories  hereafter 
to  be  acquired  to  free  labor.  we  are  doing  nothing 
more  than  our  fathers  did  and  proposed  to  do  from 
the  very  beginning. 

Again,  we  say  that  we  have  not  gone  as  far 
as  that.  We  have  yielded  something  of  their 
sternness  in  opposition  to  Slavery.  For  instance, 
the  compromise  of  1820  allowed  the  admission  of 
a  Slave  State  out  of  Territory  acquired  by  pur- 
chase ;  ami  only  insisted  that  Slavery  should  not 
be  allowed  north  of  a  certain  line.  Say  we,  we 
will  stand  by  that  compromise.  That  is  a  de- 
parture from  the  original  plan,  but  still  we  will 
abide  by  it.  Why  ?  Because  there  does  appear 
a  certain  degree  of  fairness  in  saying  that  if  a 
Territory  is  free  when  we  get  it,  it  ought  remain 
free.  If)  on  the  contrary,  it  is  Slave  Territory 
when  We  acquire  it,  do  not  exercise  the  power  of 
the  Government  to  banish  Slavery  therefrom,  but 
let  that  question  remain  for  the  decision  of  the 
people  themselves  whenever  they  shall  come  to 
form  their  State  Constitution.  So  we  have  gone 
on;  and,  under  that  rule,  practically  applied, 
what  has  been  the  result  ?  Florida,  Texas,  Ten- 
nesee,  Kentucky,  Arkansas,  Missouri — perhaps 
other  States  which  1  do  not  now  recall — come  in 
as  Slave  States;  'Illinois,  Indiana,  Michigan, 
"Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  California,  Oregon,  come 
in  as  free  States.  The  line  wras  marked  thus. 
In  the  States  I  have  mentioned  first,  Slavery  ex- 
isted before  they  become  States.  Or,  to  state  it 
more  correctly,  Slavery  was  there  in  their  Terri- 
torial condition,  and  the  rights  of  the  Slave 
owner  wrere  continuously  guaranteed  by  State 
action.  There  we  let  it  remain.  But,  to  use  the 
expression  of  the  Chicago  platform,  where  the 
normal  condition  of  the  Territory  was  in  the  be- 
ginning, freedom,  we  have  insisted  upon  perpetu- 
ating that  condition  of  society  by  State  law. 

Again,  in  1850,  when  as  Mr,  Seward  very 
philosophically  said,  the  Whig  and  Democratic 
parties  were  in  a  state  of  dissolution,  the  slavery 
question  once  more  excited  an  intense  public 
attention.  What  then  happened?  I  will  not 
here  attempt  to  say.  That  state  of  things  did 
exist.  I  was  there ;  I  saw  it.  The  South  said, 
We  want  another  set  of  provisions ;  we  want  a 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  That  is  one  case.  We 
desire  that  the  notion  that  slavery  shall  not  go 
into  a  territory  by  law  shall  be  done  away  with ; 
not  everywhere,  but  in  relation  to  Utah  and  New 
Mexico.  Now,  we  of  the  North,  Democrats  and 
Whigs,  said:  What  do  you  want  of  a  Fugitive 
Slave  Law?  Haven't  you  got  one  already? 
Yes,  said  they,  we  have  got  one.  We  have  had 
it  for  forty  years,  but  it  is  not  a  good  one.  Well, 
we  said,  if  it  has  done  for  so  long  a  period,  won't 


prudence,  whenever  the  question  of  property  in 
a  nigger  comes  up  in  a  Free  State  !  The  thing 
is  impossible.  Well,  they  said,  We  wan't  fct.ll 
another  thing  of  you.  You  have  in  your  States 
a  machinery  you  call  Habeas  Corpus.  Ahl  yes, 


we  say,  that  is  very  dear  to  us.  Our  forefathers 
in  England  and  our  forefathers  in  '76  fought  and 
bled  and  died  for  that  invaluable  writ  and  safe- 
guard of  personal  liberty.  But,  say  the  gentle- 
men of  the  South,  that  is  all  very  well  when  it 
is  applied  to  a  white  man,  but  you  act  very  im- 
properly when  you  attempt  to  apply  it  to  a 
nigger.  Now,  let  us  look  at  the  strangeness  of 
that  proposition.  There  is  a  case  between  two 
men  ;  the  matter  in  dispute  is  the  ownership  of 
a  black  horse  which  strays  from  Kentucky  into 
Ohio.  In  order  to  settle  this  question  of  pro- 
prietorship there  is  a  trial  by  jury  as  to  who 
shall  have  the  black  horse.  But  when  a  black 
man  runs  away  from  Kentucky  into  Ohio  or  any 
other  free  State,  he  shall  not  have  a  jury  trial. 
When  a  question  arises  as  to  the  personal  liberty 
of  a  human  being,  he  is  denied  the  privilege  of 
judge  or  jury  trial  in  the  ordinary  forms  of  law. 
But  a  black  horse  cannot  be  transferred  from  one 
man  to  another,  where  there  is  a  dispute  about 
the  ownership,  without  the  matter  being  fully 
determined  by  twelve  men.  Again,  they  repeat, 
all  this  talk  will  do  very  well  for  a  white  man, 
but  it  don't  do  for  a  nigger.  If  you  don't  allow 
me  to  have  a  Fugitive  Slave  Law  in  order  to 
facilitate  our  operations  in  catching  negroes 
without  any  interference  with  jurors,  you  will 
dissolve  the  Union  1  Oh !  very  well,  we  say, 
if  you  are  going  to  dissolve  the  Union,  why, 
take  your  nigger.  (Laughter.)  We  won't  break 
up  the  Union  for  such  a  reason  as  that.  So  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  passed  in  1850,  and  we 
got  along  very  well  up  to  the  year  1854.  And 
then  a  new  difficulty  arose. 

The  South  said,  we  want  to  carry  our  negroes 
into  this  new  Territory  called  Kansas.  It  has 
been  dedicated  to  free  labor.  We  know  that, 
but  we  want  to  carry  our  negroes  there.  But, 
said  we,  you  can't  do  that,  because  the  Missouri 
Compromise  precludes  you  from  taking  any  such 
step.  You  remember  how  that  Compromise  was 
established;  you  remember  who  made  it.  Old 
Clay!  (Applause).  You  remember,  too,  that 
some  of  you  said  that  no  hand  had  yet  been 
found  base  enough  to  desecrate  it.  We  can't 
give  up  Kansas.  You  have  got  two-thirds  of 
the  organized  Territory  dedicated  to  slavery ; 
you  have  not  got  a  third  of  the  population,  and 
is  not  that  enough  ?  They  say  no,  and  they  go 
to  work,  frame  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill ;  get 
Northern  men  to  do  it ;  get  Northern  endorse- 
ments, and  in  the  name  of  Democracy,  carry  it 


it  do  a  little  while  longer,  as  well  as  before  ?  !  through  Congress  I     They  uprooted  the  Missouri 


They  replied,  The  difficulty  is  that  your  judges 
and  your  jurors  up  North  are  not  to  be  trusted. 
Well,  we  then  said,  What  are  you  to  do  about 


Compromise  and  destroyed  the  public  faith.  They 
put  the  nation  in  an  uproar,  and  they  have  kept 
it  there  ever  since.  What  then  ?  Why,  some 


it?  They  replied.  We  want  to  secure  the  ap-  how  or  other,  this  notion  of  Popular  Sovereignty, 
pointment  of  a  set  of  Government  Commissioners  ;  this  idea  of  applying  Popular  Sovereignty  when 
who  shall  take  charge  of  this  question  of  slavery;  j  it  was  not  needed,  in  Kansas,  did  network  well, 
and  we  will  not  allow  your  judges  or  your  juries  !  Instead  of  making  Kansas  a  Slave  State,  it  made 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  it.  What !  said  we  j  Kansas  a  Free  Territory,  and  would  have  made 
of  the  North,  set  aside  our  entire  system  of  juris- 1  it  a  Free  State  long  ago,  if  it  had  not  been  for 


[8] 


the  rascality  of  J.  B.  (Applause).  What  hap- 
pened uext  ?  Why,  we  Republicans  in  Oregon 
and  California,  particularly,  and  a  great  many 
Republicans  everywhere,  say — Well  gentlemen, 
we  will  hold  you  now  to  your  Kansas  doctrines. 
It  works  better  than  we  thought.  Popular  Sov- 
ereignty in  that  sense  is  not  such  a  bad  thing 
after  all.  As  for  your  notions  about  "  inherent 
Popular  Sovereignty,"  that  is  all  humbug.  The 
idea  that  one  or  two  trappers  or  deserters  can  go 
into  a  wilderness  and  make  a  government  for 
themselves,  control  their  own  affairs,  divide  and 
sub-divide  the  different  parts  of  government  into 
as  many  or  as  few  sections  as  they  like,  is  sheer 
humbug.  But  the  idea  that  the  first  bonafide 
settlers  of  a  Territory  have  a  right  to  adopt  a 
form  of  government  for  themselves  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  relation  to 
marriage,  about  whiskey  and  niggers — why,  this 
is  a  tolerable  idea.  It  worked  well  in  Kansas, 
and  we  are  willing  to  try  it  again. 

All  of  a  sudden,  and  at  last,  they  find  out  that 
this  won't  do ;  and  because  poor  Judge  Douglas 
happened  to  be  the  author  of  that  doctrine,  they 
are  exercised  dreadfully  in  the  South,  and,  as  for 
that  matter,  in  the  North,  too,  and  just  here,  and 
just  now,  it  is  due  to  good  faith  for  me  to  say 
that  I  am  a  Popular  Sovereignty  Republican, 
and  I  believe  in  holding  them  to  that  bargain, 
and  I  was  so  last  year,  and  I  am  so  now.  If 
there  is  any  Douglas  man  here  who  has  any 
doubt  about  my  good  faith  in  adhering  to  those 
ideas  let  him  listen  to  me  to-night,  and  in  the 
Senate.  I  said,  and  I  re-affirm  it,  that  I  believed 
that  the  doctrine  of  Popular  Sovereignty  practi- 
cally and  honestly  applied  in  Kansas,  is  a  safe 
doctrine  for  the  friends  of  free  labor.  I  believe 
that  the  people  in  a  Territory  may  be  safely 
trusted  with  legislation  upon  this  subject  of 
slavery.  And  this  I  say,  not  because  I  do  riot 
care  about  Slavery,  not  because  I  do  care 
about  Freedom.  I  tolerate  none  of  that  miser- 
able delusion ;  I  do  care  about  Slavery  and  I 
do  care  about  Freedom.  (Applause).  I  entertain 
these  opinions  because,  since  our  experience  in 
Kansas,  I  have  fresh  hope  and  courage  and  faith 
in  the  people,  and  for  free  labor,  I  believe  more 
than  I  did  of  old,  in  the  eminent  capacity  of  the 
people  to  govern  themselves.  (Applause).  I  be- 
lieve in  them — God  bless  them !  I  bow  with 
reverence  to  the  majesty  of  the  people  in  their 
collective  might.  I  thank  G-od  that  I  see  more 
than  I  believed  before — that,  in  spite  of  the 
machinations  of  those  in  power,  the  people  of 
this  nation,  the  free  white  laborers  of  this  nation 
will  uot  tolerate  Slavery  upon  free  soil.  (Great 
applause.)  I  am  willing  to  trust  them,  and  I 
am  glad  that  when  I  do  trust  them,  we  seize 
from  the  Douglas  men  a  weapon  which  in  their 
hands  is  but  a  reed,  but  in  ours  is  a  spear,  and 
a  spear  as  strong  as  that  somewhere  described 
by  Milton  when  he  said,  "his  spear  a  fir,  fit  for 
the  mast  of  some  tall  admiral."  (Applause).  It 
is  a  great  weapon.  Popular  Sovereignty  in  our 
hands  is  not  a  delusion,  a  snare,  but  a  great 
weapon  for  Freedom  anywhere  and  everywhere. 
(Applause.)  You  can  see  that  when  you  see 
tlvese  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  writhe  so 


about  it.  Therefore  they  bolted  the  Charleston 
Convention,  coming  out  as  Joe  Lane  says,  to 
"stand,  stand,  STAND  by  the  rights  and  interests 
of  the  South."  (Laughter  and  applause.)  They 
will  break  up  even  the  traditional  love  of 
Democratic  Conventions,  and  the  dearest  thing 
on  earth  to  them,  "organization,"  rather  than 
permit  that  idea  of  Popular  Sovereignty  to  de- 
face the  Democratic  platform  any  longer.  Well, 
now,  when  they  writhe  at  it,  I  rejoice.  "I  mock 
at  their  calamity,  and  laugh  when  their  fear 
cometh."  (Laughter  and  applause.)  We  say  to 
them,  What's  the  odds?  Popular  Sovereignty 
means  the  Government  of  the  People.  What 
difference  does  it  make  whether  we  govern  it  by 
the  whole  people  of  the  whole  IT.  S.  or  by  the  por- 
tion immediately  and  more  directly  interested  ? 
It  makes  no  odds  whether  we  govern  it  in  Kan- 
sas by  the  vote  of  Kansas,  or  whether  we  gov- 
ern it  in  the  Union  by  the  vote  of  the  Union. 
You  see  the  result ;  it  is  freedom.  What  need 
you  care?  You  will  never  get  any  niggers 
there.  What  are  you  grumbling  about? 

Now,  they  yet  insist  in  their  posters  and  plat- 
forms, "  Equal  rights  to  all  sections."  The  dis- 
unionist  man  comes  up,  and  when  asked,  replies, 
Equal  rights  to  all  sections,  all  men.  as  far 
as  provided  for  in  the  constitution" — one  as 
well  as  another — have  a  right  to  go  into  the  Ter- 
ritories with  their  property,  of  whatever  species 
that  property  may  be.  Yes  !  the  southern  man 
can  go  there  and  take  with  him  his  peculiar  pro- 
perty. Says  the  Douglas  man:  That  depends 
entirely  on  the  kind  of  property  taken.  Some 
property  is  good,  other  property  is  bad:  some 
is  productive,  others  unproductive;  some  is  safe, 
others  dangerous.  Now,  if  a  man  wanted  to 
take  a  pet  jackass  (laughter)  instead  of  a  pet  lap 
dog  into  a  parlor,  would  it  be  right  for  him  to  do 
it.  But.  the  southern  man  says,  I  have  a  right 
to  go  where  I  like  with  my  own  property.  That 
means  niggers.  The  negro  in  the  first  place,  let 
me  observe,  is  special  and  qualified  property ; 
made  so  by  local  law ;  he  is  called  slave  by  spe- 
cial enactment,  not  by  natural  law,  not  by  the 
law  of  humanity,  npr  by  the  general  opinion  of 
the  world.  Yet,  he  is  property  in  the  face  of  all 
this,  they  argue. 

Literature,  philosophy,  common  law  and  the 
general  opinion  of  mankind,  all  concur,  that 
whether  black  or  white,  rich  or  poor.  "  a  man's 
a  man  for  a'  that."  (Applause.)  Naturally,  in 
in  a  government  formed  as  a  constitutional  com- 
pact between  States  organized  before  that  Con- 
stitution existed,  certain  compromises  were  made 
by  them  by  which  we  agreed  that  by  local  law 
a  negro  is  a  slave.  He  is  a  slave,  where  you 
can  catch  him,  hold  him,  and  legislate  for  him. 
Wherever  your  force  can  hold  him,  or  your  law 
can  bind  him,  we  acknowledge  he  is  your  slave. 
But,  beyond  that,  beyond  your  force  and  beyond 
your  law,  he  is  a  slave  no  longer.  (Applause.) 
And, therefore,  when  you  tell  us  that  .you  can  take 
your  property  where  you  like,  we  meet  you  with 
the  broad  and  general  answer.  Property  is  of 
two  kinds.  I  have  described  the  one.  There  is 
another  kind  of  property  acknowledged  to  be 
such  by  the  general  consent  of  mankind :  by 


[9] 


every  system  of  philosophy,  by  every  govern- 
ment, and  by  every  law  in  the  world;  and  that 
property  you  can  take  with  you  everywhere. 
..  The  other* is  local,  sectional;  in  contravention  of 
the  broad  dictates  of  humanity,  and  in  violation 
of  those  principles,  of  thought  or  action  which 
arc  broad  arid  general  as  the  universe,  or  which 
all  good  men  love.  It  is  the  misfortune  of  your 
locality,  and  you  shan't  carry  it  with  you  against 
the  common  consent  of  the  men  among  whom 
you  go.  (Applause.) 

I  ask  you,  is  not  that  fair  ?  Don't  you 
feel  that  to  be  so  ;  is  there  any  equivocation  that 
can  overcome  it  ?  Well  now,  the  Douglas  men 
in  my  own  country,  they  put  the  argument  a  little 
diilerent  in  substance  and  in  terms.  They  say  it 
is  not  true  that  a  man  can  take  his  property 
wherever  he  pleases,  with  impunity.  For  in- 
stance, in  my  country,  Oregon,  (Great  merri- 
ment) where  the  hospitality  of  the  people  is  a 
-  Teat  deal  broader  than  their  convenience;  in  my 
country.  (Renewed  merriment.)  Well,  in  Ore- 
gon, (til-eat  laughter.) 

:Viend  here,  whose  country  it  is,  reminds 
me,  if  it  ain't  mine,  it  ain't  Joe  Lane's.  (Great 
-liter.)  But,  at  any  rate,  in  any  country 
where  the  hospitality  is  more  enlarged  than  the 
convenience  you  have  sometimes  known  that  in 
traveling,  you  have  to  be  accommodated  badly — 
to  use  the  common  expression,  sleep  three  in  a 
bed.  Thence  springs  the  proverb:  "  as  thick  as 
three  in  a  bed,"  (laughter)  and  all  who  have 
lived  in  the  western  states,  or  who  are  acquaint- 
ed with  western  pioneer  life,  know  it  is  a  com- 
mon way  of  doing. 

But  imagine  three  of  us  traveling  the  road  to- 
gether. We  stop  at  a  house  at  night,  and  are 
informed  that  we  three,  being  strangers  the  one 
to  the  other,  must  sleep  in  the  same  bed,  if  we 
desire  accommouat  on.  When  about  retiring  for 
the  night,  I  look  at  one  of  my  companions,  and 
1  smell  brimstone.  (Tremendous  laugh.)  I  say 
to  him  very  politely,  "  Why,  God  bless  my  soul. 
ni}r  friend,  are  you  from  Scotland?"  (Renewed 
laughter.)  I  am  reminded  of  that  by  Macaulay. 
who,  in  the  most  brilliant  history  that  ever  was 
written,  said  a  thing  pertinent  thereto,  which 
caused  him  to  be  burned  in  effigy  at  Edinburgh. 
I  hope  no  Scotchman  will  take  offense  because  I 
repeat  it.  Macaulay  said  the  Scotchman  of 
that  day — not  now — "  was  the  most  finished 
gentleman  of  the  age,  and  he  would  receive  you 
with  a  gr  :ild  do  honor  to  Versailles; 

but  in  his  house  yon  would  lie  down  on  a  dung- 
hill and  g«-t  up  with  the  itch.''  (Great laughter.) 
1  am  sure  ir  was  a  slander  then,  and  I  know  it  is 
now.  Well,  I  look  at  my  friend  and  say.  "Why. 
7.iy  friend,  you  have  got  the  itch."  I  say"  well." 
He  sa\s  "  well."  I  turn  to  my  other  companion 
•  •en  us.  and  we  say  to  the  man 
with  the  itch,  "  We  are  in  the  majority;  you 
can't  sl.'f-p  in  this  bed.  We  are  two  against  one. 
and  \v.-  will  prevail/1  What  does  he  say  ?  He 
>  this,  that  a  man  can't  go 
where  In-  *  ;h  his  own  property.''  (Pro- 

longed   laugh'-  r    a  id    cheering.)     Xow   I  leave 


a  Republican,  I  only  add  this:  Slavery  is  the 
itch  to  Free  Labor.  It  irritates  and  discommode* 
it. 

The  normal  condition  of  a  Territory  is  Freedom. 
(Applause).  It  don't  need  any  declaration  in  the 
Chicago  platform ;  it  is  known  everywhere.  I 
have  a  !<>w  estimate  of  platforms,  but  it  is  true 
that  the  normal  condition  of  the  Territories  is 
Freedom.  Stand  upon  the  ridge  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  or  upon  some  mountain  height  that 
overlooks  the  eastern  and  western  valleys  be- 
yond you,  and  what  do  you  behold  ?  The  sav- 
age may  be  there ;  the  beasts  of  the  forest  may 
be  there;  the  pestilence  may  be  there;  but 
SLAVERY  is  not  there.  (Applause).  And  if  it 
goes  there,  you  take  it  with  you  by  your  force, 
your  fraud  or  your  law. 

Well,  now  then,  the  people  of  the  North  and 
the  people  of  the  South — or  in  other  and  better 
words,  the  slaveholder  and  the  non-slaveholder, 
go  there.  They  have  an  equal  right  to  go  each 
with  his  ax,  his  spade,  his  wagon,  his  cattle,  hie 
capital.  But  the  slaveholder  takes  his  slaves. 
That  is  his  capital.  The  eastern  man  takes  his 
free  labor.  That  is  his  capital.  They  come 
together,  and  the  eastern  man  says,  "I  can't 
work  side  by  side  with  a  slave.  It  degrades 
and  dishonors  my  free  labor,"  And  the  Irish- 
man and  the  German — who  never  go  down  to 
South  Carolina  and  Tennessee  to  make  a  home, 
but  go  to  Oregon,  California,  Illinois,  and  Iowa, 
and  who  if  they  do  go  where  there  are  many 
niggers,  go  to  Missouri  to  root  them  out ;  they 
say,  we  will  not  work  side  by  side  with  a  nigger, 
either.  You  degrade  and  you  injure  our  free 
labor.  You  diminish  its  value,  you  diminish  its 
credit,  you  lower  its  dignity.  And  we  will  g» 
to  work  now  for  the  doctrine,  the  Republican 
doctrine,  that  Congress  may  pass  a  law  ex- 
cluding slavery  from  the  territories.  Congress 
would  in  so  doing  only  do  what  Washington, 
Jefferson  and  Madison  did.  If  they  don't  help 
us,  we  will  apply  the  doctrine  of  Popular  Sover- 
eignty, the  right  of  every  man  to  value  and  pre- 
serve his  own  labor,  by  the  will  of  the  majority 
of  the  people ;  just  then  the  southern  man  says, 
:-  Not  so  fast,  I  have  got  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
in  my  pocket,"  out  it  comes,  "and I  have  got  the 
President,  Mr.  Buchanan's  interpretation  of  what 
the  Dred  Scott  decision  means,  and  I  will  teB 
you.  It  means  this:  Neither  Congress,  nor  the 
Territorial  Legislature,  nor  any  human  power 
can  remove  slavery  from  a  territory,  because  it 
goes  there  protected  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  And  now,  Mr.  German,  Mr. 
Irishman,  and  Mr.  Illinoisan,  I  tell  you  that  ail 
your  talk  about  freedom  and  popular  sovereignty, 
the  popular  rights,  and  free  labor,  is  a  humbug 
from  beginning  to  end.  Here  is  the  Constitution, 
and  here  is  the  Supreme  Court,  arid  here  is  Mr. 
liuclianan:  and  now  what  are  you  going  to  do 
about 

You  Douglas  men,  tell  me  what  yon  are  going 
to  do?  1  will  i.ell  you  what  .some  of  you  have 
been  doing.  You  go  along  whistling  tor  want  of 
thought  and  say.  we  don't  care.  Judge  Douglas 


yout'  on  of  the  illustration.   I    saya — as   I    understood   him— in    his    northern 

have  made  the  illustration  ;  do  you  apply  it  ?  As  1  speeches,   for  I   won't   say  anything  about  big 


[10] 


southern  ones,  that  Congress  bothers  itself  with 
slavery  when  it  ought  to  be  attending  to  some- 
thing else.  "I  don't  care.  If  the  people  of  the 
territories  want  slavery  let  them  have  it ;  if  they 
don't,  let  them  keep  it  out.  I  don't  care."  Do 
you  agree  to  that?  Don't  you  care.  You  do 
care.  It  is  nonsense,  it  is  absurd  to  say  you 
don't  care.  You  can't  help  caring ;  first,  as  a 
man,  because  you  are  a  man.  There  are  4,000,000 
of  slaves  in  this  country.  They  are  increasing 
very  rapidly.  They  bring  reproach  on  us  in  the 
eyes  of  the  whole  world.  The  interests  of 
slavery  kept  Kansas  out.  They  have  defeated 
the  railroad;  denied  us  homesteads ;  refused  us 
a  telegraph  line,  and  a  daily  overland  mail. 
Slavery  goes  every  where ;  meets  you  face  to  face 
everywhere  you  go — and  you  do  care.  Besides, 
you  are  men.  Many  of  you  have  read  the  say- 
ings of  the  noble  dramatist  (Shakespeare)  "I  am 
a  man ;  and  whatever  concerns  humanity  con- 
cerns me." 

Well,  in  the  next  place,  if  you  don't  care,  you 
do  care  about  the  idea  of  Popular  Sovereignty, 
don't  you?  You  love  that;  you  believe  in  that; 
you  intend  to  stand  by  that.  Now,  if  you  do,  I 
want  you  to  vote  with  me  in  November.  Tell 
me,  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  your  Popular 
Sovereignty?  Suppose  you  are  for  Douglas. 
You  have  got  Nesmith  from  Oregon — a  noble 
man — for  Popular  Sovereignty.  You  have  got 
me,  who  will  vote  on  it  when  it  comes  up  directly. 
That  is  all.  The  whole  South  and  the  doubtful 
gentlemen  of  the  North,  all — the  Republicans 
excepted — will  not  sustain  Douglas'  doctrine  of 
Popular  Sovereignty.  They  worship  at  the  foot 
of  another  idol.  Now,  what  are  you  going  to  do? 
Your  idea  of  "  unfriendly  legislation"  is  unwor- 
thy of  yourselves  and  the  cause.  If  freedom  is 
right,  sustain  it  like  men.  (Applause. )  If  it  be 
not,  abandon  it.  Now  I  will  tell  you  how  I  am 
going  to  sustain  it.  I  will  not  make  war,  I  will 
not  revolutionize  the  Government,  I  will  not  dis- 
solve the  Union,  I  will  not  dispute  the  Supreme 
Court.  If  they  say  Dred  Scott  is  not  a  citizen. 
I  say  Dred  Scott  is  not  a  citizen.  If  they  say 
that  all  negroes  are  not  citizens,  why  in  that 
particular  case,  where  a  negro  comes  to  me,  I 
say :  You  are  not  a  citizen  John,  Sambo,  Pom- 
pey;  the  Supreme  Court  has  so  decided.  But 
when  a  Douglas  man  comes  to  me  and  says,  what 
shall  I  do  about  Popular  Sovereignty?  I  say,  be 
a  man  and  attack  the  Supreme  Court;  not  by 
revolution  and  violence,  but  reform  it  altogether. 
Do  what?  Is  not  that  nullification?  By  no 
means.  When  the  Supreme  Court  decided  upon 
the  mere  question  of  money,  that  the  United 
States  Bank  was  Constitutional,  General  Jackson 
and  Mr.  Douglas  said  it  was  not;  Congress  said 
it,  and  the  people  said  it  was  not — a  Supreme 
Court  were  put  in  to  say  that  it  was  not,  and 
that  was  the  end  of  the  whole  matter.  Well 
now,  we  will  obey  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  par- 
ticular case  decided,  but  the  character  of  the 
Court  will  soon  change  in  the  natural  order  of 
events;  we  will  then  through  Lincoln,  a  Republi- 
can Senate  and  House,  put  in  better  men.  We 
will  reverse  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court 
toy  the  decision  of  the  people.  What  will  you 


Douglas  men  do  ?  Will  you  march  in  that  great 
procession — or  will  you  turn  your  ear  coldly 
away  from  the  music  of  that  march.  There  is  no 
nullification  in  that ;  there  is  no  revolution  in 
that ;  there  is  no  violation  of  the  Constitution. 
Why,  what  is  this  Government?  Think  of  it! 
It  is  the  government  of  the  people.  Not  a  pure 
Democracy.  We  don't  gather  together  in  the 
market  place  as  they  did  in  the  time  of  Pericles 
and  all  determine  our  laws,  but  we  elect  Repre- 
sentatives and  Senators,  and  make  a  President 
and  a  Supreme  Court,  reserving  to  ourselves  the 
power  to  change  them  at  limited  and  stated 
periods.  When  they  do  not  please  us,  we  reverse 
their  decisions  by  changing  their  places  and 
sending  them  away.  And  at  last,  not  by  party, 
violent,  impetuous  action,  but  the  determinate, 
well  considered,  deliberate  expression  of  the  peo- 
ple will  prevail.  It  must  prevail  at  last,  just  as 
well  in  relation  to  a  construction  of  the  Consti- 
tution as  anything  else.  The  idea  that  there  can 
be  a  power  which  can  give  a  construction  to  a 
Constitution,  mightier  than  the  Constitution  it- 
self, is  a  very  strange  idea  in  a  free  country.  The 
other  idea,  that  there  can  be  a  power  in  the 
State,  which  can  declare  by  way  of  construction 
— and  by  way  of  construction  only — that  the 
Constitution  means  what  our  fathers  and  its 
framers  denied  that  it  ever  did  mean :  and  that 
once  having  done  that  and  said  that,  though  they 
die  and  pass  away,  yet  that  their  decision  re- 
mains in  full  force  irreversable  forever  and  for- 
ever, is  absurd,  slavish  and  despotic. 

Yet,  once  more,  add  to  that  the  other  idea 
that  this  decision  is  made  not  in  relation  to  prop- 
erty merely,  but  that  it  is  made  in  relation  to  hu- 
man rights  and  liberty — not  mere  public  liberty  ; 
worse  than  that,  personal  liberty.  It  is  made, 
according  to  that  idea,  not  for  any  State,  but  for 
all  Territories  wherever  the  American  flag  may 
float,  wherever  the  banner  of  the  stars  may 
be  seen  —  wherever  the  name  of  Freedom 
may  be  echoed  from  human  lips,  there  Slave- 
ry by  virtue  of  that  decision,  is  to  go  protected, 
guarded,  hedged  about  with  all  the  divinity  that 
invests  and  guards  a  king,  to  remain  there  a 
black  stain,  a  disgrace,  a  wreck  and  ruin  forever 
and  forever.  By  all  the  hopes  and  joys  of  liber- 
ty, to  my  mind  that  is  treason  against  human 
hopes.  (Great  applause.) 

Now  you  Douglas  men,  what  are  you  going  to 
do  ?  You  will  vote  for  Popular  Sovereignty, 
will  you  ?  Well  now,  first,  probably  you  are  not 
going  to  carry  a  State.  (Tremendous  applause.) 
Suppose  you  do  carry  one,  which  will  it  be?  Cal- 
ifornia? (Voices,  no  1  narrytime!)  Perhaps  I 
don't  live  in  California ;  no,  I  don't  know  about 
it.  (Laugh.)  But  suppose  you  do  carry  Califor- 
nia and  Missouri.  Any  more  ?  No.  What  good 
will  that  do  if  you  don't  join  the  defenders  of  true 
Popular  Sovereignty,  in  whose  ranks  we  are? 

If  you  don't  join  us,  what  are  you  Douglas 
men  going  to  do  ?  Come  with  us  and  we  will  do 
you  good.  (Laughter.)  We  will  stand  by  your 
doctrine  of  Popular  Sovereignty  as  an  engine  for 
Freedom.  We  do  care.  Now  do  you  come  and 
care  too.  Well  now,  suppose  we  do  create  Free- 
dom, if  I  may  use  the  expression,  in  the  Territo- 


[11] 


ries  by  Republican  or  Douglas  votes,  and  keep  it ! 
there,  what  is  the  harm?  Who  will  dissolve  the 
Union  then?  Why  these  gentlemen  talk  about 
this  question  of  the  Territories  as  it'  we  were  do- 
ing the  people  of  the  South,  as  a  body,  some 
grievous  wrong.  They  forir«-t  that  as  yet — and  I 
trust  it  will  l>e  so  for  all  time — the  interests  of 
freedom  and  of  free  labor  are  the  great  interests 
of  the  American  people.  There  are  to-day,  as 
the  late  census  will  show,  but  270,000  persons  in 
the  Union  who  are  interested  in  slaves  at  all. 
All  the  rest  of  our  white  population  have  an  in- 
terest diivctly  adverse.  Suppose  it  were  true, 
that  we  would  be  sectional  enough  to  legislate 
for  thirty  millions  of  people  less  270,020.  Would 
that  be  a  cause  for  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  ? 

When  I  stand  here  as  an  advocate  fur  Five 
Labor  in  the  Territories,  whom  am  I  working 
for?  Did  you  ever  think  of  that?  There  are  a 
great  many  poor  laborers  in  the  South  as  well  as 
in  the  North.  The  dedication  of  Free  Territory 
to  Free  Labor,  affects  them  favorably.  I  do  not, 
therefore,  as  a  Republican,  go  to  a  man  from 
Maine,  Illinois  or  New  Hampshire,  but  I  go  to 
the  man  of  labor  everywhere.  I  say,  come,  take 
your  axe,  and  your  spade  and  come  out.  Leave 
your  idea  of  a  nigger  behind  you.  Work,  culti- 
vate, adorn,  fertalize  and  beautify!  Be  a  man. 
Make  homes  for  yourself  and  those  who  come 
after  you ;  I  do  not  ask,  I  do  not  care  where  you 
come  from,  whether  North,  South,  East  or  West. 
Nay.  more ;  I  do  not  stop  on  the  soil  of  America. 
I  wade  waist  deep  into  the  surf  and  say  to  the 
German,  come !  to  the  Irishman,  come !  I  say, 
there  is  ample  room  and  verge  enough  for  all. 
The  American  flag  shall  float  over  you,  and  the 
ideas  of  liberty  advance  as  long  as  there  shall  be 
a  bright  eye  on  earth,  and  as  long  as  the  stars 
shall  shine  in  Heaven.  (Terrific  applause.)  Be 
ing  fortified  by  party  organization,  it  is  sorrow 
fnl  to  see  how  our  Irish  friends  are  going.  We 
talk  to  them  ;  I  talk  to  them.  They  have  stood 
by  me  in  more  than  one  battle.  Many  did  last 
year.  I  appeal  to  them  once  more.  I  say  to 
them,  you  have  come  from  a  land  where  your 
fathers  have  been  oppressed  more  than  eight  hun- 
dred years,  you  have  come  to  a  land  where  the 
great  idea  is  Freedom.  Every  country  has  a  pe 
culiar  and  great  idea.  In  England  it  is  the  com 
mercial  one  ;  in  France,  the  military  one.  But,  ] 
say  the  great  idea  of  America  is  Free  Labor — 
Freedom.  (Applause). 

You,  from  the  Shannon  or  the  Lifiey,  you 
come  here  with  labor  as  your  only  capital.  \\  h\ 
not  dignify  it,  why  not  make  it  valuable,  why 
not  guard  it,  why  not  assert  its  right?  Do  you 
want  slaws  among  you  ?  Do  you  go  where  the\ 
are  ?  Do  you  want  them  to  come  here  ?  Do  yoi 
believe  in  these  so-called  notions  that  will  carrj 
them  to  Arizona  and  Washington  Territory 
everywhere  in  the  territories,  wherever  you  ma\ 
go?  You  do  not.  It  is  the  name,  it  is  the  idea 
it  is  the  odor  that  lingers  around  the  vase — ; 
fetid  odor  at  that.  (Laughter  and  applause) 
Now  I  tell  you.  that  Democracy  iu  that  sense  i- 
dissolving.  It  is  Democracy  no  longer.  There 
is  none  of  it  in  that  so-called  party.  They  can 
agree  among  themselves  what  Democracy  is 


and  one  says,  lo  here !  and  another  says,  lo  there  I 

Laughter  and  applause). 
And  you  pretending  to  come  to  a  land  of  free- 

;om,  and  live  in  it !     What  are  you  doing?     If  I 
were  to  appeal  to  a  young  German.  I  would  say 

0  him  this:  I  will  imagine  you  have  come  here, 
oiled  live  years,  and  gone  back  on  a  visit.    You 
\now    since    the   time  the    Republicans  backed 

'ass  and  others  out  of  their  Leclerc  letter,  you 
can  go  safely.     Well,  when  you  get  back  what 
lo  you  do  ?     You  go  to  the  old  house,  to  your 
ather  and  mother  and  give  an  account  of  your- 
self.    "Where  have   you  been."  asks   the   old 
gentleman.     "  I  have  been  in  Illinois,  in  Califor- 
lia,   and  in  Oregon."     "Well yes,"  the  old  peo- 
le  will  say,  "you  have  been  there;  but  have 
not  you  been  down  in  states  so  fertile  and  with 
<o  fine  a  climate,  Virginia  and  South  Carolina  ?" 
4 Oh,  no."     "Well,  why  not?"     "  Oh,  they  have 
slaves  down  there."     "Ah  !  "  says  the  old  man, 
'that's  right.     Don't  go  where  there  are  slaves. 
You  went  out  of  Germany  to   go   to  a  land  of 
rcedom.     When  you  go  back,   don't  go  to  the 
Slave  States.     Well  John,"    continues  the  old 
man,  how  are  you  in  politics?"     "Oh  !  I  am  a 
Democrat."     "All  right;  a  good  name.  The  dis- 
tinction in  this,  your  native  country,  John,  is  be- 
ween  Democracy  and  Aristocracy.     Now  John, 
you  are  not  an  Aristrocrat,  but  a  Democrat.     I 
suppose  the   distinction  there   is   the  same   as 
here."     "  No,"  says  John,  "  the  parties  in  Ameri- 
ca are  Democracy  and  Republicanism."     "Re- 
publican!" says   the  old  man,   "that  is  a  good 
name  too.     What  is  the  distinction  between  the 
two?"     "Oh,"  says  John,   "the  Democrats  go 
for  equal   rights   to   all   sections."     "Oh  yes!" 
says  the  old  man,  "equal  rights  to  all  men,  very 
good."     "No,  no,  no!"  says  John,   "not  equal 
rights  to  all  men,  but  equal  rights  to  all  SEC- 
TIONS."    "  Sections;"  says  the  old  man,   "  what 
does  that  mean  ?"     "  Equal  rights  to  all  sections 
means  the  right  to  take  your  property,  whether 
in  slaves  or  otherwise,    wherever  you   please. 
That  is  the  Democratic  doctrine.     Equal  rights 
to  all  men,  is  the  Republican  doctrine." 

Now,  how  are  you  going  to  account  for  this? 
What  can  you  tell  the  old  folks,  but  what  I  have 
already  said.  Why,  you  will  say,  perhaps. 
"  Father,  I  did  not  like  Slavery.  I  would  not 
go  down  to  Virginia  because  I  wanted  to  avoid  it. 

1  voted  against  it  in  California  and  against  it  in 
Oregon.     But,  somehow  or  other,  to  be  sure,  the 
influence  of  the  Democracy  and  the  influence  of 
the  administration  and  of  the  organization  is  for 
it.     They  do  want  to  have  negroes  everywhere ; 
they  intend  to  take  them  into  all  the  Territories. 
They  don't  care  about  any  other  right  but  "  equal 
rights  to  all  sections."    Says  the  old  man:  "Did 
not  you  love  Freedom  in  Germany?     Did  not 
you  feel  in  1848  as  if  you  could  have  died  for  it? 
and  do  you  go  now  and  sneak  at  the  heels  of  an 
administration  which    is   endeavoring   to  carry 
negroes  everywhere  because  it  happens  to  have 
the  name  of  Democratic?"    You  German  Repub- 
licans do  not  talk  that  way.     You  can  go  home 
and   answer  such  questions  with  cheerful  and 
honest    pride.      You   can   go   home   and    say: 
"  Father,  I  have  not  shamed  your  teachings ;   i 


[12] 


love  Freedom  here,  and  I  love  it  there.  I  went 
on  the  soil  of  freedom,  and  my  voice  has  ever 
been  for  it  there." 

Did  any  of  you  ever  hear  Carl  Schurz  talk  ? 
He  said  the  other  day  that  there  were  300,000 
Germans  for  Fremont  in  1856,  and  that  there 
were  now  600,000  for  Lincoln.  (Applause). 
He  talks  like  a  man  inspired.  Why?  Because 
he  brings  all  the  enthusiasm  of  his  own  nature, 
all  the  deep  enthusiasm  of  the  German  nature,  to 
bear  on  that  great  idea  of  the  progress  of  liberty 
in  this  land  devoted  by  our  fathers  to  Freedom. 
(Applause.)  Well,  now,  you  Germans,  German 
Republicans,  is  there  in  all  this  any  pretense  for 
dissolution?  Will  anybody  be  hurt?  Suppose 
we  do  keep  all  the  Territories  for  free  labor. 
The  Popular  Sovereignty  men  and  the  Republi- 
cans both  propose  arriving  at  the  same  thing, 
but  by  two  different  modes.  What  then  ?  Who 
is  hurt  ?  We  shall  do  but  as  our  father's  did. 
We  strike  for  Freedom.  In  every  free  Govern- 
ment Freedom  is  the  rule ;  Slavery  but  the  ex- 
eep'ion.  Thence  the  toil  and  struggle  in  legisla- 
ting for  free  labor.  Thence  we  obey  the  will  of 
the  Master  and  by  that  we  act  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world  as  becomes  a  free  people. 

Again,  yet  once  more.  Do  you  reflect  that 
to-day  two-thirds  of  all  the  organized  Territory 
of  this  Union  is  dedicated  to  slavery.  That,  too, 
when  they  have  but  one-third  of  the  population. 
Do  you  know  that  they  have  more  slave  territory 
than  they  can  scratch  over,  in  the  way  they  are 
doing,  in  two  hundred  years  to  come.  But, 
above  all,  do  you  remember  that  these  States, 
in  which  the  area  of  slavery  is  comprised,  have 
no  sympathy  either  from  God,  angels,  or  men, 
save  within  their  own  borders.  Do  you  remember 
that  they  have  forced  the  Democracy  North  for 
a  long  time  to  go  with  them.  They  have  held 
the  balance  of  power.  They  say  to  the  North, 
"  You  take  the  offices  and  give  us  the  slaves. 
Give  us  the  power  to  extend  the  institution  of 
slavery,  abandon  the  Railroad,  homesteads,  etc., 
and  take  the  offices.  You  can  take  a  good  many 
of  them,  because  we  can  wind  you  round  our 
finger  whenever  we  like."  Of  what  is  the 
Breckinridge  party  in  this  Union  composed? 
First,  every  man  South.  I  begin  to  believe 
from  accounts,  however,  only  some  men  South 
are  Breckinridge  men.  (Laughter  and  applause.) 
Second,  all  the  office-holders  in  the  North. 
Third,  nobody  else.  (Laughter)  There  were 
some  Germans,  some  Irish  in  their  ranks;  the, 
Germans  became  Republicans,  the  Irishmen, 
Douglas  men.  And  where  is  Breckinridge  ? 
Well,  now  I  repeat,  the  Democracy  of  the  North 
have  gone  with  the  slave  power.  Perhaps  they 
went  unwillingly?  "Organization,"  "the  real 
Democracy,"  "Democratic  principles/'  and  such 
twaddle  have  made  them  do  it.  Now,  where' 
are  they?  The  Democrats  in  the  North  as  a 
body,  except  the  office-holders,  go  for  Douglas.  \ 
As  for  t';i6  office-holders,  we  are  about  to  turn 
them  out.  (La lighter  and  applause.)  Now  is  there 
one  land  which  sympathizes  with  the  attempt  td 
govern  this  country  for  the  purposes  of  slavery  ? 
Do  you  ?  Does  England  ?  Does  Russia  ?  Does 
6-ertnany?  Does  Spain?  Does  Mexico?  Why,, 


one  of  the  most  affecting  incidents  I  know  of  in 
connection  with  the  war  with  Mexico,  occurred 
when  the  Mexican  Commissioners  met  the 
American  Commissioners  near  Mexico  to  de- 
termine the  treaty  of  peace.  They  said  in  effect, 
to  Mr.  Trist :  "  Sir,  we  are  a  conquered  people. 
You  can  prescribe  your  own  terms.  But,  we 
implore  you,  in  the  name  of  humanity  and  liberty, 
that  you  do  not  force  slavery  upon  an  unwilling 
people."  (Applause.)  That  was  the  Mexican 
settlement.  And  sometimes  when  I  hear  myself 
reproached  for  being  a  Black  Republican.  I  "stop 
and  consider,  who  I  am  and  where  I  am,  what 
I  am  doing,  and  who  I  am  doing  it  with.  A 
Black  Republican  !  With  whom  ?  Let  me  look 
at  California.  I  look  around  me.  Who  are  we? 
Look  at  our  intelligence,  our  wealth,  our  taste, 
our  brilliancy,  our  beauty,  our  numbers,  our  force, 
our  enthusiasm,  our  growing  power,  our  deep 
convictions,  our  real,  earnest  convictions,  and  see 
who  we  are.  (Applause.) 

Who  are  you  ?  In  California,  shifting,  fusing, 
dividing,  some  for  Douglas,  some  for  Breckinridge, 
now  here,  now  there.  The  cry  of  "  Black  Repub- 
licanism" avails  you  nothing.  "Abolitionism" 
chokes  in  your  throat.  You  see  signs  of  success, 
omens  of  fortune  on  either  hand.  For  us  it 
thunders  always  on  the  right,  but  you — but  I 
leave  you  to  determine.  Again,  take  the  prop- 
erty, the  wealth,  the  agriculture,  the  amount  of 
taxation,  the  intelligence,  the  discovery,  the  in- 
vention, the  poetry,  the  philosophy,  the  cities, 
the  churches,  the  school-houses,  the  pretty 
women.  (Great  laughter  and  cheering.)  And 
on  whose  side  are  they?  Why,  if  you  want  a 
cotton-gin  cleaned  you  have  to  come  to  us  to  do 
it — and  to  make  it  in  the  first  place.  I  speak  not 
in  disrespect  of  the  South.  I  know  the  virtues  of 
the  South.  They  are  courteous,  hospitable  and 
brave ;  and  in  spite  of  this  trouble  about  dissolu- 
tion, they  do  love  the  country.  They  do ;  I 
know  it;  God  bless  them  for  it.  (Applause.) 
But  in  many  of  the  elements  that  go  to  make  a 
nation,  they,  by  reason  of  slavery,  are  lamentably 
deficient.  The  books,  material  wealth,  moral 
advance,  deep  philosophy,  inspired  poetry,  all 
these  they  have  not  in  a  great  degree  of  them- 
selves. The  books  they  read,  we  write ;  the 
philosophy  we  teach,  they  learn  ;  the  lectures 
we  deliver,  they  hear.  Bancroft  and  Prescott 
write  their  histories ;  Bryant  and  Longfellow 
their  poetry.  (Applause.) 
'  In  the  whole  world  abroad,  even  where  there 
is  the  lowest  political  degradation,  ideas  of  per- 
sonal liberty,  at  the  present  time,  grow  apace.' 
Beneath  the  shadow  of  the  throne  of  Russia ; 
above  the  ruins  of  the  Inquisition  ;  on  the  banks 
of  the  Seine;  around  the  ashes  of  Napoleon,  and 
where  a  British  Queen  presides  in  all  her  matron- 
ly dignity  over  a  free  people ;  everywhere,  ideas 
of  personal  liberty  fructify  and  grow.  It  was 
the  boast  of  a  groat  Irish  orator  (Curran  ?)  long, 
long  ago,  that  when  a  slave  touched  the  sacred 
soil  of  Britain,  the  fetters  fell  from  his  limbs,  and 
rose  disenthralled.  I  think  that  was  his  idea> 
though  not  his  glowing  language — before  the 
genius  of  universal  emancipation.  (Applause,) 
Everywhere  the  great  idea  of  personal  libertj, 


[13] 


developes,  increases,  and  fructifies.  Here  is  the 
exception.  Here,  under  the  American  (Jovern- 
nient.  in  the  laud  of  liberty,  the  chosen  of  all 
freemen,  the  home  of  the  exile,  such  is  not  the 
ease.  Here,  in  a  laud  of  written  constitutional 
liberty,  it  is  reserved  for  us  to  teach  the  world 
that  under  the  American  stars  and  rtri] 
very  marches  in  solemn  procession;  that  under 
the.  American  flag,  slavery  is  protected  to  the 
utmost  verge  of  acquired  territory:  that  under 
the  American  banner,  the  name  of  freedom  is  to 
be  faintly  heard;  the  songs  of  freedom  faintly 
sung;  that  while  Garibaldi,  Victor  Kmanuel, 
every  great  and  good  man  in  the  world  (tre- 
mendous applause)  strives,  struggles,  fights; 
prays,  sutlers  and  dies,  sometimes  on  the  scaffold, 
sometimes  in  the  dungeon,  often  on  the  field  of 
battle,  rendered  immortal  by  his  blood  and  his  va- 
lor; that  while  this  triumphal  procession  marches 
on  tli  rough  the  arches  of  freedom — we,  in  this 
land  of  all  the  world — shrink  back  trembling 
when  freedom  is  but  mentioned.  (Great  ay 
plan  so.) 

At  this  moment,  Mr.  Edward  Harte,  who  was 
occupying  a  seat  on  the  stage,  employed  in  re- 
porting for  the  Times,  apparently  seized  with  un- 
controllable enthusiasm,  sprung  from  his  place 
and  advancing  to  the  foot-lights,  exclaimed: 
By  God,  it  is  true!  You  are  all  slaves  compared 
with  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  Colonel  is 
right!"  (Great  applause). 

Mr.  Baker,  (resuming) :  It  is  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. I  cannot  go  on.  [Cries  of  "Go  on!" 
"Goon!"]  You  cannot  discuss  Republicanism 
in  half  a  night,  and  it  would  be  presumptuous 
and  absurd  on  my  part  to  attempt  it.  You  know 
these  things  as  well  as  I  do.  You  feel  them  in 
your  heart.  Perhaps  I  could  talk  to  you  an  hour 
longer  without  losing  those  who  love  me  ["  Go 
on!  Goon!"]  of  the  application  of  these  ques- 
tions of  slave  and  of  free  labor  to  our  ulterior 
and  immediate  interests.  I  will  glance  at  them, 
with  your  permission,  and  glance  at  them  only. 

To  begin :  The  SOUTH  has  an  identity  of  in- 
terests in  slaves.  Our  interests  are  diversified. 
Our  interests  are  in  stocks,  in  farms,  in  cattle, 
in  manufactures  of  every  branch,  and  industry 
connected  with  free  labor.  Now,  whenever,  in 
this  country  any  measure  comes  up  which  does 
not,  in  some  shape,  in  their  judgment,  operate 
favorably  for  the  perpetuity  or  extension  of  sla- 
very, if  it  does  not  send  support  to  their  one 
single  subject  of  interest,  they  go  against  it. 

You  may  take,  now,  the  Pacific  Railroad  as 
a  striking  example.  Ten  years  we  have  been 
here;  ten  years  away  from  home;  ten  years 
'  children  of  the  dispersion ';  ten  years  longing  and 
lingering  with  our  eyes  turned  towards  the  Kast, 
towards  the  happy  land  so  many  of  us  may 
never,  never,  see  again.  We  have  sighed  for  a 
Railroad ;  we  have  begged  for  it.  We  have 
pointed  out  with  deep  research  and  wide  philos- 
ophy, and  eminent  learning,  and  great  enthusi- 
asm, its  importance  to  ns.  We  have  shown  its 
importance,  not  only  to  us,  but  to  the  United 
£  tales,  not  only  to  the  United  States,  but  to  the 
world,  not  only  to  the  world  now  but  to  coming 
generations.  We  have  pointed  out  the  best 


route.  "We  have  indicated  the  best  mode  of  con- 
structing this  work.  We  have  reflected  mature- 
ly and  fully  upon  the  subject,  and  our  conclusions 
have  been  well  founded  and  unimpeachable. 
\Ve  have,  in  this  connection,  demonstrated  the 
needs  of  the  people.  \Ve  have  shown  how  towns 
and  cities  would  spring  up  along  the  line  of  this 
road,  forming  a  perfect  line  of  defense  across  the 
entire  continent.  And  the  military  need  forfhis 
work  has  been  thoroughly  proven.  We  have 
illustrated  how  this  road  was  bound  to  be  the 
great  highway  of  nations — the  great  line  of  trade 
between  the  nations  of  Europe  and  Asia.  How 
often  have  we  pointed  out  the  absolute  certainty 
that  commerce,  in  her  legitimate  working  would 
establish  along  the  line  of  this  route  States  of 
unsurpassed  wealth  and  glory.  All  this  we 
have  done  over  and  over  again.  But  it  has  been 
of  no  avail.  Buchanan  professed  to  recommend 
the  road ;  Pierce  professed  to  recommend  its  con- 
struction. But  all  these  favors,  if  they  were 
such,  went  for  naught.  "We  asked  them  for 
bread  and  they  gave  us  a  stone ;  we  asked  them 
for  fish  and  they  gave  us  a  scorpion."  The  De- 
mocracy, the  Southern  Democracy,  the  slave  in- 
terests would  not  permit  it.  Even  while  I  speak, 
the  intelligence  comes  that  the  Breckinridge 
Convention  of  Virginia  resolves  again  and  again 
against  any  railroad  in  anyway.  Hero  is  the 
fact.  Well,  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it? 
How  are  you  going  to  help  it?  RISE  as  they 
have  risen  in  Oregon;  RISE,  as  you  are  rising 
in  California;  assert  your  rights;  declare  your 
purposes;  stand  by  free  labor  and  the  time  will 
speedily  come  when  you  will  attain  the  full  fru- 
ition of  your  hopes.  (Applause.)  Yon  cannot 
win  on  these  matters  unless  you  have  the  admin- 
istration with  you.  You  cannot  win  unless  you 
send  men  to  Washington  who  will  unite  your 
interests  with  sympathisers  for  free  labor.  You 
cannot  win  as  long  as  you  send  men  to  the  Sen- 
ate and  the  House  who  will  yield  your  interests 
to  the  dictates  of  an  unfriendly  administration 
or  a  sectional  Convention.  These  are  very  plain 
truths  for  you  to  ponder  upon. 

If  four  years  ago,  we  had  elected  Col.  Fremont, 
what  would  have  happened  ?  In  a  few  months 
he  would  have  commenced  the  work ;  and  pre- 
paratory to  this  he  would  have  sent  out  two  reg- 
iments of  dragoons  to  tramp  the  track.  (Applause) 
He  would  have  immediately  recommended  a  rail- 
road. There  would  have  been  no  beating  about 
the  bush,  on  the  mere  question  of  the  constitu- 
tionality of  building  a  military  road ;  he  would 
have  recommended  the  building  of  a  road  at  once 
with  the  money  and  for  the  probable  benefit  of 
the  whole  people.  He  would  have  had  no  con- 
stitutional scruples  himself,  and  he  would  not 
have  tolerated  any  in  anybody  else.  He  would 
not  have  allowed  Senators  to  come  to  the  White 
House  and  say  to  him,  you  must  go  against  this 
proposition  for  a  Pacific  Rail  Road,  or  I  will  op- 
pose you  and  your  administration.  He  would 
not  have  delayed  the  work  because  Senator  Ma- 
son, or  Toombs,  or  Hunter,  expressed  their  dis- 
approbation of  it.  He  would  have  simply  said : 
The  Government  needs  the  road,  and  the  labor 
on  its  construction  must  immediately  proceed. — 


[14] 


In  the  name  and  for  the  cause  of  free  labor  he 
would  have  commanded  in  all  legitimate  forms 
the  prosecution  of  the  mighty  undertaking.  And 
though  I  candidly  believe  that  there  is  not  a 
more  incorruptible  man  in  the  world  than  Fre- 
mont, I  may  be  permitted  to  say  that  I  think  that 
if  there  had  been  any  corruption  under  his  ad- 
ministration it  would  have  operated  for  and  not 
agayist  that  great  work.  (Great  applause.) 

Now  we  are  running  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  (Great  cheering)  who  will  do 
that  same  thing.  He  really  loves  free  labor  and 
her  interests  ;  he  was  born  with  such  sentiments 
though  a  native  of  a  slave  state ;  he  is  of  it.  He 
cay  say,  speaking  of  free  labor  achievements,  as 
yEneas  said  to  Dido,  when  he  was  describing 
the  sacking  of  Troy,  "  All  of  which  I  saw 
and  part  of  which  I  was."  He  is  a  simple  mind- 
ed, an  honest,  a  true  man — a  Hero  without 
knowing  it.  (Great  applause.)  He  will  guard 
you  and  your  interests  because  he  is  with  you 
and  of  you.  If  he  gets  into  the  White  House, 
(and  there  is  no  "if"  about  it)  he  will  recom- 
mend the  construction  of  a  road  in  all  sincerity. 
He  will  not  dodge  the  question.  But  his  hands 
must  be  strengthened  and  upheld  by  you.  You 
must  send  men  to  Congress — Senators  and  Rep- 
resentatives— who  will  sustain  him ;  men  who 
do  not  have  all  their  feelings  enlisted  for  the  prop- 
agation of  "the  peculiar  institution." 

Now,  allow  me  to  say  that  what  is  true  of  Rail 
Road  propositions  as  viewed  by  the  South  is 
equally  true  of  the  Homestead  Bill.  Nor  of  these 
alone.  But  is  equally  true  of  all  things  connec- 
ted with  the  interests  of  common  men.  What 
does  the  South  care  about  Homesteads  ?  What 
does  the  South  care  about  spreading  the  cordon 
of  homes  that  themselves  will  constitute  the  very 
best  of  military  posts  from  Missouri  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  thence  to  the  Sierra  Nevadas  ? 
They  never  trade  with  us ;  the  citizens  of  the 
South  do  not  send  goods  to  us,  their  interests  lie 
in  quite  a  different  direction.  Yirginia !  Vir- 
ginia! Once  the  Mother  of  States  and  the 
Mother  of  Statesmen,  is  now  almost  exclusively 
engaged  in  slave  breeding ;  engaged  in  rais- 
ing them  to  send  South.  What  does  she  care 
about  homesteads  and  railroads  ?  Nothing. — 
Pity,  'tis  'tis  true  !  Why  there  are  50,000  whites 
in  Virginia  over  21  years  of  age  who  can  neither 
read  nor  write !  She  don't  care  about  Railroads. 
But  we  do.  The  German  immigrants  do.  Nor- 
way and  Sweden,  they  who  come  to  us  from 
those  countries,  care  about  those  things.  We 
have  a  thousand  millions  of  acres  of  Public  Land. 
Let  us  repeat  it,  \ve  have  a  thousand  millions  of 
acres  of  Public  Land.  And  upon  them,  during 
generations  to  come,  thousands  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  happy  homes  may  be  reared.  The 
taxes  they  will  yield,  the  wealth  they  will  create, 
the  strong  arms  they  will  sustain  for  willing  and 
valuable  labor  in  time  of  peace  and  for  ample 
and  prompt  defence  in  time  of  war.  These  con- 
stitute our  power,  these,  to  use  the  expression 
of  the  Roman  matron  when  called  upon  to 
produce  her  chief  treasure,  produced  her  children, 
saying. — "These,  these  are  my  jewels."  (Ap- 
plause.) 


What  does  the  South  care  about  these  things  ? 
Her  interests  are  not  ours.  The  institution  of 
Slavery  overshadows  everything.  Day  laborers, 
common  people,  laboring  white  folks,  who  are 
neither  politicians  nor  office-holders — and  the  lat- 
ter now  involve  the  former — have  no  interest, 
and  apparently  few  rights  which  the  sectional 
chivalry  are  bound  to  respect  or  candidly  to  con- 
sider. And  as  long  as  they  can  keep  them  under 
their  direction,  the  slaveholders  of  the  fifteen 
slave  States  will  secure  their  votes  against  a 
Homestead  and  against  a  Pacific  Railroad ; 
against  all  the  interests  which  are  common  to  the 
people  of  this  coast.  But  this  is  not  always  so 
to  be. 

Allow  me  to  say  that  one  day  this  month,  a 
Republican  Senator  was  elected  in  Oregon.  The 
next  day  the  Democratic  Legislature  instructed 
me  to  vote  for  a  Homestead  Bill.  Lane  and 
Smith  having  heretofore  voted  against  that  be- 
neficent measure.  Now,  there  is  a  revolution 
going  on  upon  this  coast.  Here,  the  vote  of  Cali- 
fornia has  been  at  one  time  against  a  Homestead 
Bill.  But  this  will  be  so  no  longer.  Positions 
are  to  be  renewed,  and  Freedom  and  Free  Labor 
are  to  have  the  representation  from  the  States  of 
the  Pacific.  (Great  applause.) 

When  we  get  into  power,  as  soon  we  shall,  it 
will  be  our  aim  to  use  that  power  wisely  and 
temperately.  We  will  infringe  upon  no  Consti- 
tutional rights.  We  will  not  attempt  to  interfere 
with  the  slave  where  he  is  now  held  under  a  State 
law.  We  will  not  organize,  encourage,  or  for 
one  moment  tolerate  the  insane  movements  of 
any  John  Browns.  (Applause.)  We  will  justify 
nothing  of  the  kind.  If  another  John  Brown 
should  descend  upon  the  Old  Dominion,  and  take 
the  State  by  storm,  and  keep  the  people  on  the 
northern  outskirts  in  dreadful  captivity  for  twen- 
ty-four hours,  and  should  get  hung  for  his  fantas- 
tic and  treasonable  capers,  it  will  not  be  our 
fault — simply  a  misfortune  in  which  he  will  not 
have  our  sympathy  as  true  and  loyal  citizens. 
(Applause.)  And  not  only  so,  but  let  anybody 
else,  high  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  from  the  North  or 
from  the  South,  attempt  treason,  and  we  will 
hang  the  traitor  on  the  instant  the  overt  act  is 
committed.  (Great  applause.)  While  that  is  so, 
we  must  insist  with  the  fullest  emphasis  that  the 
majority  must  rule.  Our's  is  not  a  Government 
of  Minorities,  but  of  Majorities.  At  least  we 
come  to  this  conclusion :  we  either  rule  or  submit 
as  politicians.  This  is  the  end  of  the  whole  mat- 
ter. 

Again,  there  is  the  direct  opposition  between 
slave  labor  and  free  labor.  And  here  I  am  ad- 
dressed by  some  Democratic  friend :  "  Col.  Baker, 
what  say  you  concerning  Seward's  opinion  that 
there  is  an  irrepressible  conflict  between  Slavery 
and  Freedom?  What  do  you  say,  Col.  Baker, 
about  that  idea  of  Lincoln's,  that  the  States  will 
not  always  remain  half  slave  and  half  free,  but 
ultimately  they  will  be  all  free  or  all  slave? 
What  have  you  to  say  on  that  matter?  "  I  think 
that  if  that 'is  Lincoln's  opinion,  he  has  a  right 
to  express  it.  In  the  next  place,  I  apprehend  that 
that  is  your  opinion  too.  So  you  think  that 
Slavery  is  going  to  last  forever?  I  know  you 


[15] 


don't  ,'ood  for  that .    We  know  that  |  that  stump,  have  too  much  sympathy  with  the 

n  but  as  one  day  j  negro  race.     Why,  there  are  men  in  my  < 


•at  be 

rk  its 


iy  to  quarrel 
with  tit-.  rs  if  a  suspicion 


on  their  part  with  the  negro  race   was  but  hint- 
ed.    "W:. 

•  nod d  abolitionist."  My  urn- 

i !].     There   are  :;y  people  of 

that  sort  who  set-in  to  ibar  that  there  is  direcon- 


to  ti:»>  banks  of  the 


Mr.  Clay  of  being  an 


.  •-. 
• 

•/ants  it  to  last  nlways  ? 
ill  not  last  for- 

;.;h  sym- 
not    la.-;  lieanng    Mr.  ;  pathy 

in  one  of  his    not  a  Catholic,  but  I  will  get  on  th-- 
inself  and  his  '  and  acknowledge  that  J  .  ith  the 

country:  i  have  sympathy  with  all  slaves; 

••!•••  <1    with  the  suffering  and  unfortunate  of  every  class ; 

and  I  would  to  God  that  I  could  help  the  whole 
of  them.     I  sympathise,  as  I  ii 
a  man  who  has  a  scolding  wife ;  or  a  s 
chimney,  or  the  fever  and  ague ;  but  I  don't  know 
bound  to  vnan  to 

whip  his  wife  or  to  pull  down  his  chimney  or  to 
take  arsenic  for  his  fever  and  ague,  and  1  don't 
feel  bound  to  run  a  tilt  to  free  e  >  at  the 

expense  of  breaking  my  own  neck.    (Laughter 
and  applause).     I  have  sympathy  for  ti 
but  I  am  restrained  in  a:i .  actuaJ 

liberation  by  the  laws  of  my  country,  which  I 
implicitly  obey  and  profoundly  reject.  My 
first  duty  is  for  the  honor  and  glory  of  my  own 
race.  A  portion  of  the  colored  race  are  • 
in  this  free  country.  I  would  to  God  that  it 
were  of  ,•!  if  within  constitutional  lim- 

its it  were  possible  to  help  them  to  their  freedom, 
I  would  do  what  I  could  for  their  relief.  My 
Douglas  friend  would  do  the  same.  Why  not? 
As  we  all  ought.  I  go  to  the  temple  of  the  MOST 
HIGH  to  hear  arid  to  utter  prayer  and  praise.  I 
I  join  with  all  men  in  their  devotions.  When 
the  Pri<  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  all 

;<;od  Lord,   on  ail 
.en," — I  say  "  on  all  men." 

1  our  adversaries  i*  this:  Thoy 
seem  to  suppose  that  if  we  have  human  hearts, 
letting  trej.  -  ihem.     Not 

so.  While  \ve  have  sympathetic  feelings,  which 
are  nothing  more  than  human.  vrthat 

we  live  in  a  land  of  iial  Law.     We  are 

a  confederation  of  st  We  concede 

to  the  south  their  propt ;  ''h'ng  to 

their  own  law,  in  their  own  way.  Far  be  it  from 
us  to  violate  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution. 

hard.     1'v: 

it  wore  to  be  made  over  again,  we  would  not 
brrn  it  in  the  same  te:  whatever  is 

nominated  in  the  bond  we  will  abide.  For  in- 
stam...  :  10,000  en  >00, 

[  have  but  one  my  own.    If  I 


•1 
aboii:.  nse. 

And  I  ap;  <    I'rtvkinridge  am 

.    Inv-  a  little  sense  of  piety  in  you 

composition  —  inherited    from  yjur  mother  —  no 

.')—  individually,    I 

1th  rno  that  the  time 

tg  when  SI  >e  abolished.     You 

go  and  read  Pop-  .-ages  11 

iblime  O'.nr.fio-ition.  See  how  he  treab 
the  subject.  I  don't  know  that  Pope  was  an 
Abolitionist,  though  great  and  inspired  poets  are 
Vpttobe.  Horner  care  was,  the  Bible 

.  and  though  I  can't  stop 
ider  the  question   as   to    whether  Pope 
>!itionist  or  not,    I  can   say  that  he 
very  good  company  if  he  was.    How 
•it  may  be,  I  In;  an  expression 

part  of  Lincoln  as  to  what  was  going 
to  be  ;  but  if  you  will  read  the  rest  of  the  pas- 
sage. ,'  that  he  tells  you  that  while 


he  thinks  that  s^:h  things  are  sure  to  come  to 
iisturb  the  present 

:•  '-tier  of  things  in  the  'Union  for  the 

purpose    of  effecting   or   hastening    such  a  re- 
sult.    .-•'.  .'rard  and   Lincoln  agree 

iiat   there  is  an  ''irrepres* 

icr  any- 
in   the  world,  the  heart  of  the  slave  will 

-ill  sirug-i 
be  him,   and  he  will   i; 

•:1   can't   help  standing  up  and  saying, 
'  Hurrah  fur  the  weak) 

to   our  party 

the  term  "^boUti  .uionist,"   are  alto- 

gether out  .  ,  .    half  dreams  that 

'site  race, 
for  civil  .         lom  every- 

But  it  wo'ild  seern  that  my  friendly  inquirer 
does  not  rememlx 

• 

• 

Gonatitu 
flion  of  '.-lanand  a  - 

<ion  to  the  wisdom 
and  Pr 

permit  me   to  say 
JPT  fear  ,;n  and  Hamlin,  and   men  of 


Five  negroes  Ii 


•i'lil 


at  num- 
itative 


givea 

1  effect,    That 
s  h  ird  .  ;u  the  bond,  and  we  abide  it 

f  lutbeas  COTJ>  •  rial  by 

>id  jurors  are 
to  be  trusted,  but  that  a  black  man  accused  of 


[16] 


being  a  runaway  slave  -hall  be  delivered  up  to 
you  on  your  simple  affidavit.  That  is  hard,  but 
we  will  abide  i»y  it. 

As  Hammond  (Senator)  said  the  otl< 
the  South  has  administered  the  Government  for 
sixty  years.  lie  asks  if  they  may  not  safely  do 
it  for  sixty  years  more.  Th- 
we  think  that  wo  will  try  the  business.  (Ap- 
plause). There  need  be  no  fear 
The  Government  which  our  fathers  'bunded  will 
not  be  broken  up  by  us.  No  threat  of  disunion,  no 
hard  names,  no  fear  of  outside  feuds  shall  drive 
we  froni  the  broad,  .uminous  path  of  right  and 
duty.  (Applause.)  In  the  presence  of  God — 
looking  Yip  reverently  to  Him  while  we  say  it — 
-..us  declare  that  Freedom,  in  this 
great  Government,  is  the  rule,  and  slavery  but 
the  exception.  (Great  applause.)  Slavery  is  the 
exception — marked,  guarded,  hedged  in  and  pro- 
tected ;  there  let  it  remain.  (Applause.)  Let  it 
elaun  its'  just  righcs,  and  possess  them — if  we 
are  to  be  accessory  to  all  its  vices  and  errors — If 
even  public  opinion  is  not  to  be  allowed  to  visit 
its  dusky  check  too  roughly — let  that  be  so; 
but  beyond  \vhat  is  nominated  in  the  bond,  we 
will  not  ar,d  dare  not  go.  We  live  in  a  day  of 
a  in  an  advancing  generation.  "We 
Sve  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  world.  "We  are 
w  like  a  c:ty  set  on  a  hill  which  cannot  be  hid.''  The 
tears  and  hopes  and  sighs  of  all 
good  men  are  with  us,  of  us. 
and  for  r.ic,  I  dar 

that  portion.      Here    then,    v  v  y-;.rs 

{  by  Freedom,  and 

where  in  my  earliest  youth  my  feet  were  planted, 
there  my  manhood  and  my  age  shall  inarch.  And 
for  one,  I  arn  not  ashamed  of  Freedom.  I  know 
her  power.  I  rejoice  in  her  majesty.  I  walk 
beneath  her  banner.  I  glory  in  her  strength.  I 
have  seen  Freedom  in  history,  again  and  again; 
with  mine  own  eyes  I  have  watched  her  again 
and  again,  struck  down  on  a  hundred  chosen 
fields  of  b;;  I 

I  have  seen  her  friends  fly  from  her ;  I  have 
seen  her  foes  gather  aroijnd  her;  I  have  seen 
them  bind  her  to  the  stake;  I  have  seen  them 
give  her  ashes  to  the  wind? — regatherimr  them 
again  that  they  might  scatter  them  yet  more 

;  but  when  her  foes  turned  to  exu^1 
seen  her  again  meet  them  face  to  face,  resplen- 
dent in  complete  steel  and  brandishing  in  her 
strong  right  hand  a  flaming  sword,  red  with  in- 
sufferable light.  (Tenific  cheering  and  -tpplause, 
the  and r-  ^d  pealing 

cheer).     And  I  take  courage.    Thepeo}-1 
around  her.    The  Genius  of  America  will,  at  last, 

-,-nia!  once  in  four  years,  ac- 
;  to  The  appointed  ln\>r  you  Assemble  to 
conduct  a  complete,  yet  in  H  •>  peaceful 

revolution.     No  d. .  ':'<>   day.     Dis- 

union is  far  from  us.     Ti»e   hc:;u't  of  the  people 

'•ill  roll 

on  in   r!  •  (>iain, 

hon-  -  rm.     Let  i;s 

do  it  well.     AT 
after  all.  the  best  onion   is  a  good  cause.     On 


this  Pacific  coast  we  have  labored  Ion- 
heretofore,  with  little  ho. 

viled;  even  scoffed  at,  bclea.7ured  and 
beset.  It  is  but  a  year  ago.  a  few  days  past, 
since  I,  your  humble  an-;  '•'•estul  cham- 

pion, was  beaten  in  .  beaten 

— though  obtaining  a  vo1  >est  ex- 

pectations,  for  the  offie-  five  in 

Congress.  "With  my  heart  brm>,- .1  my  ambition 
somewhat  wonnded,  my  hopes  crushed  and  de- 
stroyed, it  was  my  fortune,  one  week  later.  jo 
stand  by  the  bedside  of  my  slaughtered  friend 
Broderick,  who  fell  in  your  cause  and  on  your 
behalf,  (sensation)  and  I  cried  aloud,  how  loud ! 
0,  bow  long!  shall  the  hopes  of  Freedom  and 
her  Champion  be  thus  crushed  forever  and  for- 
ever T1 

The  tide  has  turned !  I  regret  my  Jittli 
I  renew  my  hopes.  I  see  better  omens.  The 
warrior  rests!  It  is  true  he  is  in  the  embrace  of 
.that  sleep  which  knows  no  earthly  waking.  Nor 
word,  nor  wish,  nor  prayer,  nor  triumph  can  re- 
call him  from  that  lone  abode.  (Sensation  )  But 

D  pie  lives  inn.1'.  ;;.rst  us.     In  San  Ft . 
I  know  I  speak  to  hundreds  of  men  t< 
perhaps  to  thousands — who  loved  him  in  hi.;  IJK-. 
and  who  will  be  true  to  his  memory  always : 
and  if  I  were  not  before  a  vast  assemblage  of  the 
people  I  would  say  that  in  a  higher  arena  it  may 
be  my  fortune  to  speak  of  him  and  for  him,  as  I 
will.     (Great  eheer 
believe  that  ^ 

in   the  midst  of  a  people  who  k>\> 
well,  who  are  riot  and  never  will  be  forgetful  of 
the  manner  of  his  life,  nor  of  the  manner  of  his 
death, 

People  of  San  Francisco,  I  thank  you  for  the 
honor  of  your  presence  here  to-night.  You  make 
me  very  happy  and  very  proud.  In  the  contest 
through  which  I  have  just  passed,  your  earnest 
desire  for  my  success,  the  kindly  words,  Uiat 
were  spoken  of  and  to  me,  cheered  mo  in  times 
of  doubt  and  adversity,  and  infinitely  heightened 
my  satisfaction  in  times  of  prosperity  and  tri- 
umph. I  rejoice  that  through  circumstances 
beyond  the  probable  hope  of  any  man  here 
present,  a  State  generous,  confiding  beyond 
any  man's;  desert,  has  placed  rue  where  I  can 
show  that  I  really  do  feel  in  the  deeps  of  my 
heart  their  trust  in  me,  and  where,  in  doing  that. 
I  can  serve  you.  (Applause.)  Believe  ni<>  that 
as  I  can— not  as  a  politician  merely,  not  as  a 
mere  party  follower  or  party  lender— If  I  can  in 
an  earnest,  simple,  heart-felt  way,  show  them, 
and  next  to  them  you,  the  gratitude  I  feel  for 
favors  long  since  and  but  recently  bestowed,  ibr 

f.-.ii  you 

:,11  consider  myself  extremely  happy 
and  extremely  fortunate.     (Great  applause.) 
And  expressing  to  you  again  and  again  my 
ibr  the  great  honor  you  p»y  me  this  night. 
I  bid  you  a  cordial,  heartfelt,  affectionate,  fare- 
well. 

Senator  Baker  retired  amid  a  wild  st-or 
applause  and  cheering. 

The  meeting  then  adjourned. 


X 


